Kvitova survives longest WTA match of the year to reach round 3

Petra Kvitova needed three hours and 17 minutes to see off the challenge of Yulia Putintseva, winning the longest WTA match of this season to date.

The world No 9 had wanted to make short work of her unseeded opponent, however, the Kazahkstan player had other ideas.

The match ran to three sets, including two tiebreaks, before Kvitova prevailed 6-7 (4), 7-6 (3), 6-4.

“It’s kind of tough to explain, because it was really up-and-down,” Kvitova said afterwards.

“My mental side wasn’t really tough, I have to say.

“It was always, like, a good point and I was up mentally, and then it was a bad point, and I was down.

“That was almost all match.

“I couldn’t show the game which I played the last few weeks. I just really stayed very calm.”

Told that her match was the longest WTA match of the season to date, she sarcastically replied: “What an honour.”

In other matches, world No 1 Simona Halep beat Kristyna Pliskova 6-4, 6-4 while fifth seed Karolina Pliskova beat Irina-Camelia Begu 7-4, 6-1.

Jelena Ostapenko came through 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 against Belinda Bencic and Kristina Mladenovic was a 7-5, 7-5 winner over Sam Stosur.

There were also seeds to fall with Johanna Konta going down in three to Marketa Vondrousova and Ashleigh Barty losing to Maria Sakkari.