Andrea Petkovic (30) has reached the second round of a Grand Slam tournament after a dramatic 2:52 hour match for the first time in a year.
4:0 in the final set, first three match points awarded and still won at the end. Andrea Petkovic played against the two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in phases as if she was playing at her best. In the final phase a nerve battle developed, in which the Czech player served twice in vain on the match. After scarcely three hours of play time, the favourite made a double error – and Petkovic was able to cheer after her hard-won 6:3, -4:6, -10:8 victory.
After Angelique Kerber (Kiel/No. 21), Julia Görges (Bad Oldesloe/No. 12) and Mona Barthel (Neumünster), Petkovic was the fourth and last German to win her opening game in Melbourne. In the second round on Thursday she will meet Jana Cepelova (Slovakia) or Lauren Davis (USA).
Petkovic won the tenth duel with Kvitova. The former top 10 player fights for her place among the best 100 players in the world. Kvitova has not yet found her way back to her old class after the knife attack in December 2016, when a burglar had inflicted serious injuries on her striking hand.