Kvitova – Sorana Cirstea produces a surprising 6-4, 1-6, 6-1 victory over 2019 Australian Open finalist Petra Kvitova on a sun-drenched Margaret Court Arena.
The result was Cirstea’s best win in nearly four years and her biggest win in a grand slam for nine years.
Having gone a break up in the opening game, Kvitova ended up making 18 unforced errors to hand the unseeded 30-year-old the first set. Kvitova’s serving proved a problem all set, too, with a 50 per cent first serve percentage.
After a kit change after the first set, Kvitova found her rhythm and broke the Cirstea serve three times to set up an enthralling decider.
And it was Cirstea, who reached the quarter-finals of the Grampians Trophy last week, who came out on top, breaking the Kvitova serve in games one, three and six en route to a comfortable 6-3 set and a place in the next round.
The Romanian ranked 68 in the world will play another Czech – Marketa Vondrousova – in the third round.
“I’ve had a lot of matches against Petra and she’s an amazing player,” she said post-match. “She hits the ball so hard and it took me a while to adjust to the game but once I was in there I felt that I could beat her and I felt quite confident. I’m really happy and very happy with this win.”