It appeared early on that it would be a short day at the office for Kvitova, in a good way, as she captured the opening set in 30 minutes.
In the second, though, Pliskova was able to get a break early on, then another to take a 4-1 lead. Kvitova threatened to recover one in the next game, going up 30-40, but three huge serves in a row bailed Pliskova out of trouble as she held to go up 5-1.
In the back-and-forth seventh game, Pliskova capitalized on her third set point against Kvitova’s serve to level the match and send it into a decider.
After an easy hold to open the third set, Pliskova broke Kvitova’s serve to take a 2-0 lead. Kvitova got on the board a couple of games later to make it 3-1, but Pliskova was able to stretch her lead to 5-1, a game away from the third round.
That’s when things started to get interesting.
Pliskova went up 5-1, 40-15, but Kvitova fought back to break serve. In the next game, Pliskova earned two more match points but lost those, as well. As she served for the match a second time, Pliskova failed to convert two more match points. Within that game, though, Kvitova missed opportunities to get the match back on serv—and Pliskova finally converted on her seventh match point when she drew a return error from the two-time Wimbledon champion.
It's the second Top 10 win of the year for Pliskova, who beat Jelena Ostapenko at the Shenzhen Open in January. She next faces 16th-seed Elena Vesnina, after the Russian beat Taylor Townsend of the U.S. in straight sets.
