Kvitova Takes Rogers Cup Title in Montreal
Petra Kvitova defeated Li Na on Monday night, 7-5, 2-6, 6-3, to capture the 2012 Rogers Cup in Montreal. It was Kvitova’s first WTA title of 2012, as the number five seed Kvitova needed more than an hour and five set points to take the first set. And after the 10th-seeded Li blazed through the second set in just 32 minutes, Kvitova got the only break of the third set and held serve the rest of the way en route to her win.
"The first set was a really big fight—every game was very close. Maybe I was a little bit lucky to win the first set," Kvitova said. "She played very well in the second set. She was very aggressive without any mistakes."
Li fell to 0-3 in WTA finals this year, but they were all at very big ones—Sydney, Rome and now Montreal—and she now moves back into the top 10 of the WTA World Rankings.
"I have asthma, so I have trouble breathing sometimes, but it wasn’t too humid here this week," Kvitova said. "It’s only a problem in North America, unfortunately, because here it’s more humid than Europe or Australia, where it’s very hot but not that humid. Humidity is the main problem for me."
Kvitova’s Rogers Cup win gives her eight WTA titles—one in 2009, six from her breakthrough season in 2011, and now her first one of 2012.
Kvitova reached the final with a three-set victory over seventh-seeded Caroline Wozniacki. Li had a tougher route, getting past Eugenie Bouchard, eighth-seeded Sara Errani and second-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska to reach the semifinals. There she roared back from a 5-1 third-set deficit to defeat Lucie Safarova.
