BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open

Women’s Final: [11] Petra Kvitova (CZE) vs. [51] Monica Niculescu (ROU)

Niculescu has the advantages of her game, but with those advantages come many disadvantages.  Today, she took full advantage of her style of play as she out sliced and dropped shot Kvitova to the point of frustration. The dominant and in-form Kvitova never got a grip on the match and just when she thought she had a slight opportunity, she was thrown another curve ball by Niculescu.  When you are tall, you expend a lot of energy to get low and the repeated bending and running forward took a toll. In the end, the attack wore her down and by the second set she had lost the will to even fight.

They had met three times previously and Kvitova led their head-to-head 2:1 coming into this encounter; however, their last match was a battle that Kvitova barely won.  Thus, she knew she would have to be focused and ready to handle the different ball that Niculescu can produce. Perhaps it was fatigue, but she just never got going. Niculescu has been on tour since 2002 and during that time she has won seven doubles titles and only two singles title.  This title may be her biggest to date given the caliber of players she had to beat en route to victory.  This was her second final of the season and despite the odds, she continued to believe in her unique style of play. Today she was the sharper player and was determined not to lose a second title this season.  After a very competitive first set, the second set was a blow out and she knocked out the number one seed 6-4, 6-0.

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