No pain, no gain for Kvitova as she reaches round three

Saturday, 6 July 2019 00:55 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

LONDON (Reuters): Petra Kvitova’s decision to give her shoes an almighty whack with her racket turned out to be a masterstroke as the Czech’s legs finally started to move more freely, and she eked out a 7-5 6-2 win over Kristina Mladenovic at Wimbledon on Thursday.

The sixth seed did not exactly enjoy the most promising of starts - she was broken in the opening game and fell 5-3 behind when she squandered three break points in the eighth game.

Kvitova took out her frustrations on her personalised shoes, giving one of them such a powerful blow with her racket frame that it briefly left her grimacing — and that proved to be her French opponent’s undoing.Two games later, Kvitova saved three set points to level for 5-5 and it was a setback Mladenovic could not recover from.

The 2011 and 2014 champion, still sporting a bandage around her left elbow after missing the French Open with an arm injury, started swinging more freely as she won 10 of the last 12 games to book a third-round place for the first time since 2015.

Kvitova will next face Poland’s Magda Linette for a place in the last 16.

Discover Kapruka, the leading online shopping platform in Sri Lanka, where you can conveniently send Gifts and Flowers to your loved ones for any event including Valentine ’s Day. Explore a wide range of popular Shopping Categories on Kapruka, including Toys, Groceries, Electronics, Birthday Cakes, Fruits, Chocolates, Flower Bouquets, Clothing, Watches, Lingerie, Gift Sets and Jewellery. Also if you’re interested in selling with Kapruka, Partner Central by Kapruka is the best solution to start with. Moreover, through Kapruka Global Shop, you can also enjoy the convenience of purchasing products from renowned platforms like Amazon and eBay and have them delivered to Sri Lanka.