PRAGUE (Agencies): Petra Kvitova came from a set down against Mihaela Buzarnescu to win the Prague Open on home soil – her third WTA title of the year.
The Czech raced into a 3-0 lead but Romania’s Buzarnescu took the opening set after winning five straight games. But world number 10 Kvitova hit back before taking a hard-fought decider to win 4-6 6-2 6-3.
The two-time Wimbledon champion, who has now won 23 WTA tournaments, denied Buzarnescu her first career title. Kvitova, 28, has had a strong season on the women’s tour, winning both the Qatar Open and the St Petersburg Open, following six months out after a knife attack at her home in December 2016.
The second seed began the better in front of a vocal partisan crowd in Prague and had two break points to move 4-0 ahead in the first set. But the home favourite made 24 unforced errors in the first set and served five double faults as she collapsed to hand world number 37 Buzarnescu the advantage.
Buzarnescu, 30, failed to capitalise in the following set and her frustration at both her own tennis and the crowd showed as Kvitova saved six break points and converted three of her own to force a third set. The Romanian won just 53% of the points on her first serve in the second set, and Kvitova needed just one break of serve in the decider to complete the turnaround.
