Petra Kvitová claimed her 30th WTA Title on Saturday at the Miami Open by beating Elena Rybakina 7-6 (14), 6-2 in the final.
Kvitová at 33 became the 2nd Oldest Women’s Champion after Serena William’s 8th Title in 2015. She was Champion in her 13th appearance in the tournament which is an event record. She prevented Rybakina from winning the Sunshine Double following the Kazakh’s win at Indian Wells two weeks ago. Rybakina was attempting to become just the 5th women to complete the Sunshine Double after Steffi Graf did it twice in 1994 and ’96, Kim Clijsters in 2005, Victoria Azarenka in 2016 and Iga Swiatek in 2022.
In a first set dominated by the serve, Kvitová was unable to take two break points in the first game before managing to break at 4-4 in the first set. However Rybakina was able to break back immediately before the first set went to a tie-break after both women held serve in their final service games of the first set.
Rybakina opened the tie-break with 3 aces in establishing to take a 4-2 lead in the breaker before Kvitová levelled the scores at 4-4. The next 14 points were won by the serve before Rybakina was able to get a set-point on serve at 12-11 but was unable to convert. Ultimately, Kvitová was able to get a set point opportunity on serve at 15-14 and was able to take it. The tie-break itself lasted for 22 minutes and the entire set lasted for over an hour. It ended Rybakina’s perfect record in tie-breaks this season as she was 7-0 in tie-breaks prior to the first set on Saturday.
The second set was all Kvitová, 3 return winners enabled her to break immediately at the start of the second set before saving a break point at 2-0 (30-40) with a fine backhand volley. That proved to be the only wobble in the second set for the 2-time former Wimbledon Champion as the current holder of that title was unable to respond.
Kvitová broke for the title at 2-5 to claim her biggest title since she won the Mutra Madrid Open in 2018 in an overall match-time of 1 hour and 42 minutes. She became the first Czech woman to win the title in Miami in its 40-year history. It was her 9th WTA Masters 1000 Title which tied her for 8th most of all time in that category. Kvitová converted 3 out of her 8 Break Points during the match whereas Rybakina converted 1 out of her 2 Break Points as the Kazakh was unable to make inroads into Kvitová’s serve throughout the contest.
The victory has moved Kvitová back into the World’s Top 10 for the first time since September 2021. Rybakina remained at her career-high ranking of No.7, she would have moved up to No.6 had she won the title. The form of both players will make them among the favourites for Wimbledon again this year where Rybakina will attempt to be the first woman to defend the Wimbledon Title since Serena Williams in 2016. Kvitová will attempt to win a 3rd Wimbledon, 9 years after her 2nd title which equal be the largest gap between titles alongside Evonne Goolagong Cawley.