Petra Kvitova defeated Elena Rybakina in the first round of the tennis tournament in WTA 250 Adelaide International 2 with a prize fund of 780,637 USD.
The 32-year-old Czech tennis player, who won Wimbledon in 2011 and 2014, relied on a powerful serve to cruise to a 2-0 (6:3, 7:5) victory over the Kazakh.
Former world No 2 Petra Kvitova also showed form at the United Cup mixed team tournament when she beat third-seeded American Jessica Pegula.
Elena Rybakina became the first female tennis player from Kazakhstan to win a Grand Slam trophy when she beat Ons Jabeur at Wimbledon last year.
“I lost to Elena Rybakina last season. She’s playing really well, she’s serving well, so I focused on my serve and waited for chances to break her. My serve worked very well today – that’s what I’m very happy with”, said Petra Kvitova.
In the late match, Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion Belinda Bencic (Switzerland) won against two-time Grand Slam winner Garbine Muguruza (Spain) with 2-0 (6:3, 6:4) in 80 minutes.
In other matches of the tournament, Swiss qualifier Jil Teichmann defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Russia) by 2-0 (7:5, 6:4), and the 10th-seeded Danielle Collins (USA) eliminated Karolína Pliskova (Czech Republic) by 2-0 (6:2, 6:4). Beatriz Haddad Maia (Brazil) eliminated Sorana Cîrstea (Romania) by 2-0 (7:6, 6:1), and the Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova defeated the Australian Jaimee Fourlis by 2-0 (7:5, 6:3).
