Brilliant Kvitova captures Wuhan crown

Petra Kvitova raced to a 6-1 6-1 victory over Dominika Cibulkova in the Wuhan Open final on Saturday to capture her first title of the year with a ruthless display of power hitting.

The victory secures a second Wuhan title for the 14th-seeded Czech and moves Kvitova up to 12th place in the race to qualify for the season-ending eight-woman WTA Finals in Singapore after a campaign hampered by illness.

“Wuhan, it’s really one of my favourite cities,” said Kvitova.

”It was a great crowd as well, there were some incredible matches for me and I’m really happy that I can stand here as a champion again.”

The two-time Wimbledon champion, who knocked out world No.1 Angelique Kerber in the last 16, took command of the match from the start, losing just one point in the first four games as she blazed through the first set.

Cibulkova, who had won her previous two meetings against the Czech, played four three-setters in five matches en route to the final and fatigue appeared to catch up with the 10th-seeded Slovak as she managed just two winners in the entire contest.

With the first set under her belt, Kvitova refused to take her foot off the pedal as she smashed 28 winners in the match to coast to victory in a little more than an hour.

Despite her heavy defeat, Cibulkova will move up to a career-high eighth in the world rankings when they are released on Monday, while Kvitova will climb up to 11th.