Petra had played far from her best of late, taking three sets to limp past Schiavone whose form had even less with which to be pleased. Melbourne-born Laura, now claimed as an Aussie cause none of our own were left, rid the Open of American Melanie Oudin with little fuss and must have thought well of her chances tonight.
As the initial games came and went, with Kvitova breaking straight away, then handing the advantage back, the two left handers played some good tennis against a backdrop of uncertainty. Finally Kvitova grabbed the initiative, breaking Robson twice to take a 5-2 lead and serve for the set. As simple as that sounds, she needed to work extremely hard to earn the position and the eighth game was anything but a picnic. Robson had a truckload of chances to retrieve one of the breaks, but due mainly to clutch serving and nicely weighted ground strokes, Petra struggled through the adversity to hold her serve and take the set 6-2.
Laura, with the job in front of her, had 90% of the crowd behind her, and virtual silence at times greeted Petra success. The only sour note was the reaction to the double faults that Kvitova served and she served plenty. Wild cheers each time. Not a sporting gesture from a generally sporting crowd.
Robson served first in Set 2 and turned her fortunes around. The match became a genuine contest with each girl firing ground shots at each other with power and accuracy (well for the most part). The entertainment factor had been ramped up somewhat, and when Laura broke Petra to lead 3-1 the crowd entered the match big time.Petra looked a little fragile and when Laura achieved a double break to lead 5-1 a third set was inevitable. Although Kvitova understood that Set 2 was more than likely lost she needed to have some momentum for the decider. It came with Robson serving for the set and double faulting on break point. Petra served successfully to make it 3-5 and although Robson did even the match by winning the set 6-3, Kvitova would be serving first in the advantage set, and with some confidence.
The third set cannot be adequately summed up in words other than to say it elevated the match to a level where the first two sets could now be considered just a warm-up.
Yes there were lots of instances of poor shot selection and plenty of less than acceptable execution, but the contest was alive and well, and the good tennis was in sufficient supply to allow the occasional intrusion of the not so good.
Petra broke in the second game. Ok - looked like Laura had run her race and the seeded player would exert her influence from here. Of course not! Let us have breaks in games 5, 6 and 7 and really confuse the issue. Which girl wanted this the most? 4-4 was reached and for all of the drama we hadn't solved a thing.
Laura appeared to settle better in the next period and confirmed as much when she broke the Kvitova serve to lead 6-5. Serving for the match for the first time she could not complete the deal, thanks to some fine defence and determination from Petra and understandable nerves from the teenager.
7-7 then 8-8 passed, each time with Robson having to serve to stay in the match - and doing so with great resolve. At 9-9, the British girl pounced pressuring Petra with some great forehands and forcing the break.
No problems serving it out on the second try and after 3 hours Laura Robson had triumphed 2-6 6-3 11-9.
Tonight for once Roger Federer was in all ways the entree to the main dish.
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