By Chris Oddo | Friday May 11, 2018
Petra Kvitova made it a perfect 10 wins with a plethora of winners against Karolina Pliskova in Madrid.
Photo Source: Denis Doyle/Getty
For the second time in 2018 Petra Kvitova has won ten consecutive matches. With a plethora of winners, the Czech powered past Karolina Pliskova 7-6(4), 6-3 to book a spot alongside Kiki Bertens in the Madrid final, where she’ll bid for her third title at the Caja Magica and her 24th overall.
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Kvitova remained undefeated against her sixth-seeded compatriot by handling the big moments better over the course of their one hour and 43-minute battle.
Pliskova herself was riding a career-best nine-match winning streak on clay after claiming the Stuttgart title but she ended a close-fought opening set with back-to-back double-faults and could only save two of seven break points against Kvitova on the evening.
Kvitova finished with 32 winners to 21 from Pliskova, and she won 61 percent of second-serve return points.
Kvitova is 23-7 lifetime in finals and 1-0 lifetime against Bertens, but they have never met on the Dutchwoman’s favored red clay, where she owns a 75-31 lifetime record.
Pliskova had her chances early as she held leads of 4-2 and 5-4 in the opening set, but was broken by Kvitova once at 4-3 and again serving for the set at 5-4.
After taking the tiebreaker Kvitova claimed the momentum with a break in the first game of set two and later weathered her biggest storm by saving three break points to hold for 3-1. She was in trouble again serving at 3-2 but somehow won an amazing defensive point at 30-all to avoid facing a break point.
After holding for 5-3, Kvitova reeled off her final break of the evening to close affairs without drama.
The 28-year-old Czech improves to 29-6 on the season and 25-6 lifetime at Madrid.