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Petra Kvitova has broken down in tears following her win over Ashleigh Barty in the Australian Open quarter-finals, as she reflected on her comeback to tennis following a horrific home invasion in late 2016.
Kvitova, who beat Barty 6-1, 6-4 on Rod Laver Arena, became emotional as she spoke about the incident, which left her with severe injuries to her hand and sidelined her from the WTA Tour for some time.
“I didn’t really imagine to be back on this great stadium and play with the best and it’s great,” a tearful Kvitova said in her on-court interview.
The two-time Wimbledon champion has shown signs of her best form in Melbourne this fortnight and she offered Barty few opportunities in their quarter-final clash.
Barty, looking to become the first local player to reach the Australian Open women’s semi-finals, entered Rod Laver Arena with a smile and a wave to the crowd but she found herself on the back foot early in the first set when Kvitova raced out to a 3-0 lead.
The Australian was broken in the second game, while Kvitova held her serve twice to confirm her ascendancy.
Barty won her next service game to get on the scoreboard but another break in the fifth game saw Kvitova serving for the first set.
She did so with relative ease, taking a one set to love lead in just 27 minutes.
Barty began the second set more positively, holding serve before gaining a second break point for the match.
But Kvitova was not fazed, serving her way out of trouble and in her next service game she survived another break point to level at 2-2.
Games went on serve until Kvitova broke Barty to lead 5-4 and she served out the match to win in one hour and eight minutes.
Kvitova, the world number six, will meet unseeded American Danielle Collins in the semi-finals on Thursday.
Collins made it through to the last four by beating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 2-5, 7-5, 6-1.
Look back at how Kvitova defeated Barty in our blog below.
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