Petra Kvitova defeated Eugenie Bouchard, 6-3 6-4 to win her third title of the 2014 season and the inaugurual tournament in Wuhan. Petra continued her excellent record in finals; her record is now 14-4. It is hard to knock Kvitova off her game once she has managed to find her rhythm and has some wins and confidence under her belt. Bouchard offered up some late resistance in this match. She had a couple of break points in the middle of the second set and then finally converted on one when Kvitova served for the match. I thought Bouchard played reasonably well, but she struggled to break up Petra’s rhythm. To be honest, I think most players would have struggled to do that today.
Kvitova has served impressively all week and when she faced break points in the second set, most of the time her serve got her out of trouble. Kvitova won 66% of service points against Bouchard and finished with impressive stats of 30 winners to 18 unforced errors. The courts in Wuhan certainly suited Kvitova’s game. I’ve said it before and will say it again… Kvitova in this form is a pleasure to watch. I know I am a little biased, but not much tops watching an in-form Kvitova hit winners like she did today.
With this win, a first top ten victory in 2014(!!!), Petra officially qualifies for Singapore. She joins Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova and Simona Halep, who have also confirmed their places. It also looks likely that Agnieszka Radwanska, Caroline Wozniacki, Ana Ivanovic and Eugenie Bouchard will qualify too. I’m sorry to sound like a broken record, but what a line-up that will be?! In my opinion, it will be a perfect blend of game styles and personalities.
Beijing is already underway; in the first main draw match of the week, Madison Keys saved a match point and came from 5-3* down in the decider to defeat Alison Riske in three sets. Petra and Genie both have byes into the second round.
*On a final note, I was very surprised to see that the majority, 55%, had gone for Genie over Petra in this final in yesterday’s poll?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!
I’ll leave you with some of my favourite tweets from the Petra v Genie Wuhan final…
Moo's Tennis Blog 
Haha agree with you!! Petra in this spetacular surely is a pleasure to watch. An A game from her 🙂 Hope she can clinch the number 1 ranking soon.
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Hey James, I have do disagree with you a little here. Don’t you find it odd that Petra reaches this stratospheric level only when she plays Genie? I think this has a lot to do with Genie’s game: she stays in the court, so Petra hits hard, down the middle, at the Canadian’s feet. When the short ball comes back, Petra can go for a easy winner. I am surprised we don’t see more players adopting this strategy with Genie, although Petra’s strength obviously puts her in a terrific position to apply it.
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I agree with everything you have said, Iulian! What was it I said you disagree with?
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I said I disagreed “a little” 🙂 It seemed to me that your analysis suggested something like “oh well, here goes Petra again, nothing to do when she’s like that” 🙂 While I think Petra is a great player (14-4 record in finals!!), I do believe the reality is a little more nuanced than simply “Petra is unstoppable”,
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That’s a fair point. I do think Petra was “unstoppable” in the Wimbledon final, but Bouchard had her chances today.
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