#KikiBertens continued her quest of a top-five debut as she moves into the fourth round of the 2019 #MiamiOpen after defeating the dangerous #ViktoriaKuzmova in three sets, although she dominated the majority of the match with an interesting 3-6, 6-0, 6-1 scoreline after just an hour and 24-minutes of action.
Firing 11 aces and blasting through 85 percent of her first serve points, Bertens could be said to have produced a flawless service display bar the one game in the first set which saw her being broken.
Kuzmova was struggling on the defence, especially when Bertens was firing on all cylinders as she battled past the Slovakian in their second encounter of the year. Their previous meeting came at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, with Kuzmova saving a match point to triumph en route to reaching her first Premier 5 quarterfinal.
Bertens will next face 12th seed Ashleigh Barty and a win will help her edge towards a top-five debut in the rankings next week, and will become the first Dutch woman to do so should she mount a deep run in Miami.
Kuzmova grabs the first set
Both Bertens and Kuzmova are huge servers and hard-hitters, and in such a battle, service breaks could be considered rare. However, the world number eight found herself in some deep trouble early on, dropping into a 0-40 hole in the fifth game. Nonetheless, Bertens regained her composure and came up with some huge serves to save herself from the brink.
That was a huge scare for the Dutch, who suffered from a slow start and never seemed to have found her true abilities under the beautiful sunset in Miami. Winning just nine points on return in the first set, Bertens struggled to dig for opportunities and Kuzmova continuously applied the pressure.
The imminent break finally came in the eighth game with Bertens unable to find her first serves. Bertens was serving at 38 percent in the first set, and despite winning all her first serve points, winning just six points behind her second delivery certainly proved costly. Kuzmova took advantage and finally clinched the breakthrough with a beautiful forehand down-the-line winner.
Kuzmova earned the golden opportunity to serve out the set and she dutifully capitalized on her chances, taking the first set 6-3 and being halfway from upsetting Bertens in yet another early-round match.
Bertens replies with a bagel
Kuzmova’s only top-10 win of her career came against Bertens in Dubai earlier this year. And it seemed highly plausible that she would grab her second top-10 win of 2019 against the same opponent as Bertens just could not find her first serves consistently.
However, within a blink of an eye, the world number eight fought back in style. Four games went to either 30-30 or deuce in the second set, but all of which were won by Bertens as Kuzmova’s weapons abandoned her during the crucial moments.
Bertens’ serving was unbelievable — she improved her first serve percentage to 50 and hit six aces to bagel the Slovakian youngster, levelling the scores needing just 26 minutes to level the scores.
Bertens seals the impressive comeback
Winning 20 of the first 23 points of the set, Bertens continued to ride on her momentum and her game was completely on fire. She was merciless and left no openings for Kuzmova, whose body language gave off negative vibes considering the disastrous scoreline.
The deciding set saw Bertens serving at 82 percent, a massive improvement from 38 percent in the first set. She looked to seal the virtual double-bagel win when she was up 3-6, 6-0, 5-0, but Kuzmova was quick to respond as she battled hard to claim the comfortable love service hold, sparing some embarrassment for herself.
However, it was just a consolation hold as Bertens brought forward the inevitable — grabbing the win in three sets after just 84 minutes of play.
Comments