Petra Kvitova might be endorsed as the true No.1 in women’s tennis by her childhood idol but it’s still a topic she wants nothing to do with.
Kvitova on Monday outlasted Ana Ivanovic to sail into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open and moved closer to swiping Caroline Wozniacki’s top spot.
In her first win over the Serb in four meetings, Kvitova chalked up a straight sets victory – taking the match 6-2 7-6 (7-2) in 1 hour and 25 minutes.
She will now play the winner of the fourth round clash between China’s Jie Zheng and Italian Sara Errani.
With every victory the second seed is subjected to speculation she will fly out of Melbourne as the No.1.
But the continual probing elicits little more than irritation now.
“Well, I mean, it’s all the time you are asking me,” Kvitova said.
“I can say something about this when I am No.1, not now.”
Less reticent was her idol, Martina Navratilova, who declared Kvitova top of the pile.
“Clearly nobody feels that Wozniacki is a true No.1,” Navratilova said.
“If we still had the same ranking system we were using six years ago when they were giving bonus points for beating players Kvitova would have ended up No.1 because she had beaten more top players than Wozniacki.”
Navratilova said Wozniacki “doesn’t even have that great of a record in her career or the last four years over the top 10 or against the top five.”
Number one or not, Kvitova proved too much on Monday for former No.1 Ivanovic as she whipped through the first set in 31 minutes.
She successfully challenged a ball called out on set point to take the set.
Kvitova broke serve in the fifth game of the second set but struggled to hold her own serve two games later.
Eventually the left-hander pushed the Serb out of court and moved to a 5-3 edge with a return down the line.
But Ivanovic battled back, securing a service break of her own to level at 5-5 before holding serve in comical circumstances when she returned a high ball and Kvitova, waiting at the net, made a fresh air attempt at a smash.
As the set went to a tiebreak, Kvitova ran up five match points and while Ivanovic saved one, she surrendered in the second with a return dumped into the net.
