Kvitova crashes out of Tokyo

TOKYO (AFP) –

File photo shows Petra Kvitova at the US Open on September 2. The fourth seed Kvitova became the biggest casualty of the second round at the Pan Pacific Open on Tuesday as she fell victim to the unheralded Petra Martic.

The fourth seed Petra Kvitova became the biggest casualty of the second round at the Pan Pacific Open on Tuesday as she fell victim to the unheralded Petra Martic.

The 2011 Wimbledon champion from the Czech Republic, ranked fifth in the world against Martic’s lowly 73rd, crashed to a 6-4, 6-4 defeat to the Croat. Kvitova received a first-round bye.

A badly off-form Kvitova double-faulted three times to lose the opening game, again lost the first game of the second set to love and was never able to overcome an uphill battle throughout the 88-minute upset.

“She has a big serve and it is tough to push her. She kept me on the defensive and running a lot, and that’s not my game. She played so well today, very aggressive,” said Kvitova, 22.

“I need to do some more work on my serve because it didn’t help me today. I didn’t get a lot of free points from it. So that will be our main area to work on.”

Martic, 21, who reached the fourth round at the French Open, said: “It was my biggest win so far. I beat a top-10 player at Roland Garros this year, but this is a very big win. I’m really happy about this match.

“The last five or six days were really weird. My practices were really bad, I was struggling, I had no confidence.”

Martic lost the first set of her first-round match in Tokyo 6-0, before recovering to set up the unlikely victory over Kvitova.

Last year’s French Open champion Li Na of China, seeded seventh, needed more than two and a half hours to beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 7-5, 4-6, 6-2, while ninth seed Marion Bartoli of France defeated Germany’s Julia Goerges 6-2, 7-5.

Nadia Petrova of Russia reached the third round beating Romania’s Simona Halep 7-6 (7/4), 6-0.