BRISBANE – Germany’s Andrea Petkovic played one of the matches of her career to overpower Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli 6-4, 6-2 to reach the final of the Brisbane International here Friday.
Petkovic has been in scintillating form this week, not dropping a set on her way to the final. Against Bartoli she used her superb athleticism combined with some booming groundstrokes to absorb everything the fourth seed could throw at her to reach the third WTA final of her career. Bartoli started well but once the 23-year-old Petkovic found her rhythm midway through the first set, Bartoli simply had no answers. “I’m a diesel, I need time to get going, so I wasn’t moving perfectly in the beginning,” she said. “Marion put a lot of pressure on with her returns and I needed some time to get used to that. “But later I felt really good, I was moving well, I was hitting the ball well.”
Petkovic worked hard on her fitness during the off-season and said she now felt in complete control on the court. “I feel a lot calmer because I know I can get to almost every ball and I know it’s very hard to hit a winner against me — that just boosts my confidence,” she said. Bartoli had opened with all guns blazing, quickly breaking Petkovic twice as she raced to a 4-1 lead.
But the German eventually found her range and was able to combat the early striking of her opponent. Petkovic clawed her way back with two breaks to even things up at 4-4, held her serve to move ahead then broke Bartoli to wrap up the first set in 45 minutes. She started the second the way she finished the first and won the first three games before Bartoli eventually held her serve to stop the rot. But Petkovic was not to be denied and despite faltering when serving for the match at 5-1, she regained her composure to break straight back and take the semi-final in one hour, 17 minutes.
“It’s just one of those days when your opponent plays very well and on my side I was missing a little bit — it happens,” Bartoli said. “It’s not like I played a bad match, tonight she just played too good, and that’s fine. “You just have to learn from it and go into your next match and try again.” Petkovic will play either Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova or Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic in Saturday’s final.
