Seeds Kvitova and Pavlyuchenkova Progress in Cincinnati

Fourth seed Petra Kvitova suffered a scare in the early stages of her second round match up against Germany’s Mona Barthel in Cincinnati. The former Wimbledon Champion and world no.5 was beginning her Western and Southern Open campaign after receiving a bye in the first round, but suddenly found herself a set down to the German.

The 22-year-old rallied however, taking the second set comfortably and closing out a nervous decider to seal the match 3-6 6-2 7-5.

The Czech left-hander is in strong form coming into the tournament after winning the Rogers Cup in Montreal only three days ago. She will now face China’s Shuai Peng for a place in the last eight.

Up to now, 17th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova has had a relatively easy ride in Cincinnati, producing a walkover in each of her two matches and is yet to drop a set. Germany’s Julia Goerges had looked strong in her opener against Shahar Peer but was overwhelmed by the Russian in the second round, losing 6-3 6-0.

It seems unlikely that Pavlyuchenkova will complete her hattrick of 6-0 second sets when she comes up against sixth seed Caroline Wozniacki in the third round. The former world no.1 was never troubled by Kazakhstan’s Sesil Karatantcheva, dropping only a single game as she raced to a 6-1 6-0 victory.

Tags Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova Cincinnati Julia Goerges Petra Kvitova Western and Southern Open WTA Tour