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Kvitova saves four match points to topple Pegula / Photo: © AFP
Kvitova saves four match points to topple Pegula
Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova saved four match points to shock third-ranked American Jessica Pegula 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (13/11) on Tuesday to reach the quarter-finals at Indian Wells for the first time in seven years.
Kvitova, a former world number two now ranked 15th in the world, will try to make her first Indian Wells semi-final in her 12th appearance when she takes on last year's runner-up Maria Sakkari.
"I had all these emotions, up and down all the match, it was a disaster at some point and then I was just making winners.
"I don't know how many match points I was saving today -- four? Oh! I don't know how I did it."
Kvitova, 33, reached the quarter-finals in the California desert in 2013 and 2016.
After she grabbed the first set off Pegula -- who came from a set down in both of her previous matches -- the American turned things around.
But Pegula couldn't finish the job. Kvitova saved a match point in the 10th game of the third set, breaking Pegula.
They traded two more service breaks to get to a tiebreaker that was neck-and-neck throughout. Pegula had the first chance at 6-5, but Kvitova won the next two points to give herself a match point.
On it went until Kvitova's gutsy serve and volley move on her fourth match point paid off.
"I knew that Jessica would not miss. It doesn't matter what I'm going to do I know I was always wearing down in the third and trying to come back.
"I just still had to go for it. It's really tough in the tight moments to go for it."
F. Tavares--JDB
