Kvitova, Ostapenko move on, Vondrousova ousted by Cirstea in St. Petersburg

A couple of interesting matches happened today in St. Petersburg with Kvitova, Ostapenko moving on while Vondrousova was beaten by Cirstea.

Petra Kvitova scored a victory in the first match of the day in St. Petersburg taking down qualifier Niemeier 6-2 6-1. It was a brilliant return to form from Kvitova who endured a very rough going down under. Kvitova dominated from the start ending points quickly with her precise shots. She served well and simply overmatched her opponent in every facet of the match.

Joining her in the next round is Jelena Ostapenko who played against talented Wang Xinyu. Ostapenko put forward a solid performance where she hit more winners than errors and in that it's always a good result for her. The young Chinese player failed to adapt well in the first set losing it 1-6 but did much better in the 2nd. Still, Ostapenko was good enough to win it with 6-4 and move on.

Sorena Cirstea continued her great 2022 season with another solid win. She faced Marketa Vondrousova in a very interesting match that went three sets and was very close. Vondrousova was up twice in the first set but ultimately collapsed late to give it to Cirstea with 7-5. She jumped out to a furious start in the second taking a 3-0 lead and a 5-0 lead after that.

She nearly threw that away with some questionable decision making giving Cirstea some momentum back. In the she escaped with 6-3. The final set was a close one iwth chances for both. Vondrousova was a bit better early but got outplayed by Cirstea down the line as the Romanian closed it out with 7-5.