MADRID (AFP) – Petra Kvitova won the Madrid Open title for the third time on Saturday with a marathon 7-6 (8/6), 4-6, 6-3 victory over Kiki Bertens but dismissed talk of her as a potential Roland Garros champion as “crazy.”
World number 10 Kvitova, who was also the champion in Madrid in 2011 and 2015, has now claimed four titles in 2018 after triumphs in St Petersburg, Doha and last weekend in Prague.
Victory, on a chilly, damp night in the Spanish capital, took Kvitova two hours and 51 minutes against a gutsy, unseeded Bertens who had knocked out former world number ones Maria Sharapova and Caroline Wozniacki on her way to the championship match.
In a big-hitting, roller-coaster of a final, Kvitova claimed her 24th career title on the back of 39 winners and 58 unforced errors.
‘‘It feels sweet and weird as well,’’ said 28-year-old Kvitova on becoming the first woman to win the Madrid title on three occasions.
After her efforts in Madrid, two-time Wimbledon winner Kvitova, not suprisingly, announced she will skip the Italian Open in Rome next week.
With four titles under her belt already this year – two of them now on clay – Kvitova remained cautious over her chances of winning the French Open which gets under way in Paris in two weeks’ time.
‘‘It’s crazy,’’ she insisted. ‘‘You know, I’ve been in a semi-final one year.”
