Miami Open 2023: Petra Kvitova reaches last four for first time after edging hard-fought Ekaterina Alexandrova battle

Petra Kvitova came out on top of a three-set battle with Ekaterina Alexandrova to reach her first Miami Open semi-final at the 13th attempt.

One break decided each set as the Czech’s early lead was soon cancelled out by Alexandrova, before Kvitova made a late breakthrough in the decider and kept her nerve to serve out the match.

The match was delayed by 24 hours by rain before the 33-year-old sealed a 6-4 3-6 6-3 victory in a gruelling two hours and 12 minutes to set up a semi-final clash with Romanian Sorana Cristea.

Kvitova had complained of tiredness after her last win over Varvara Gracheva, but she lasted the distance to make it two wins from two meetings against the Russian.

The 15th seed immediately applied pressure on the Alexandrova serve, earning three break points in two games and taking the final one when a forehand from the Russian flew over the baseline.

The breakthrough secured, Kvitova remained calm for the remainder of the set, never threatening to snap behind her own serve as Alexandrova didn’t get a sniff.

Alexandrova did well to save two set points at 4-5, but she could do nothing to stop her Czech opponent from serving out in style, landing her third ace of the match on set point.

Alexandrova managed to tighten things up at the start of the second and finally applied some pressure on the Kvitova serve with four break points early on, but the Czech saw off all of them.

The 18th seed struck at her next opportunity, though, seizing the initiative at the fifth time of asking before serving out the set as the momentum firmly swung in the other direction going into the decider.

After one break settled the first two sets, the third followed a similar pattern, with neither player giving much away as they ground their way towards a tie-break.

However, Kvitova earned two break points at 4-3 up in her first real chance, and she let out a roar of joy when a whipped forehand cross court on the second proved impossible for Alexandrova to return and gave the Czech the chance to serve out for the match.

A huge serve out wide set up two match points for Kvitova, but signs of nerves crept in when the first was squandered with a double fault. She made no mistake the second time, as Alexandrova fired a shot into the net to surrender the match.

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