Petra Kvitova, world No. 2 of the Czech Republic, narrowly escaped in a close match over No. 58 ranked Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 on Thursday to advance to the 3rd round of the 2012 Australian Open.
The reigning Wimbledon champion, Kvitova, won the first set easily but became visibly frustrated as she lost the second and had to come from a break down in the third to pull out the match.
Kvitova was in great form in the first set, serving well and breaking the Spaniard twice. But she seemed to lose focus in the second set, missing easy shots and allowing Suarez Navarro to dictate the points. Kvitova became increasingly agitated and made a string of unforced errors to surrender two breaks of serve, and with them the second set.
Suarez Navarro broke to take a 2-0 lead in the deciding set, but Kvitova dug deep and broke right back. Using powerful ground strokes, Kvitova broke a second time and went on to take the match.
Kvitova will now meet No. 28 seed Maria Kirilenko from Russia who advanced with a win over Aleksandra Wozniak 6-4, 1-6, 6-2. Kirilenko leads Kvitova 2-1 in career matches.
