MELBOURNE, (Reuters) – World number two Petra Kvitova shrugged off the embarrassment of one of the worst missed shot of the tournament to advance to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open last night with a 6-2 7-6 victory over former world number one Ana Ivanovic.
The 21-year-old Wimbledon champion was lining up her second successive smash to win the point in the ninth game of the second set but totally mistimed the shot and the ball bounced off her arm to gift Ivanovic the game.
Kvitova, perhaps mindful that footage of the shot will shortly become an Internet hit, temporarily lost her composure and dropped her serve for the first time in the match.
Ivanovic, who made the final at Melbourne Park and then won the French Open in 2008, held to take a 6-5 lead but the Czech then held serve to force a iebreak that she raced through to set up a last eight match against either China’s Zheng Jie or Italy’s Sara Errani.
