"This will be totally different opponent" - Kvitova on Sabalenka ahead of final clash in Doha

After Aryna Sabalenka spoke after the match against Svetlana Kuznetsova, also her final opponent, Petra Kvitova spoke to the press about playing the final in Doha.

Kvitova defeated Ashleigh Barty in the semifinal at Qatar Open. The match reached the third set and the Czech had to show their best in order to power past the world number 1. After the match, she said:

"I pushed myself a lot to go more deeper to the court, not to flying back on the Qatar sign," Kvitova assessed after the match. "I tried that she couldn't have put me away from the baseline that much, so I took time from her and she couldn't do that much with her forehand. That was kind of the key, to try near by the baseline and just play from there and still pushing to the court...I did have chances in the last meetings with her as well, but today I was just maybe...braver and that's how it is."

Kvitova knows that Sabalenka will be a different opponent than those she played up until now. The Belorussian is in a great form and will test the Czech to the maximum, but 2-time Wimbledon champion knows what it takes to win in Qatar.

"It will be totally different. I think in this tournament... I played more kind of tricky opponents, like with the slice and drop shots and high balls. And so maybe Jelena [Ostapenko, in the round of 16] was kind of different, but it was so windy so it wasn't really about the tennis anyway," Kvitova said.

"This will be totally different opponent for me tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to that for sure. Enough of the slices from Ash today, so I'm glad I do have a little bit, different opponent. It will be a lot of serve and return. It's the first two shots which are going to decide the match, for sure. And we played a few times already, she beat me, I beat her. And yeah, we'll see, it's a similar game, so who knows who is going to be lucky."