NEW YORK, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Fifth seed Petra Kvitova beat 90th-ranked Wang Yafan from China, 7-5, 6-3 in the second round of the U.S. Open women's singles here on Thursday, through to the third round for the 7th consecutive year.
Kvitova, who had won the 2011 and 2014 Wimbledon titles, took an easy 4-1 lead in the first set with her big serves. But when Wang, 24, began getting a better read on the Czech's serves, the world No. 90 ran Kvitova from corner to corner, returning every ball and tearing through a 4-1 run of her own to tie it up at 5-5. But a shaky service game from Wang conceded the first set.
Without missing a step, the Czech earned an early break to open the second set and ran away with it, finishing the match with 27 winners and 26 unforced errors to move on in one hour and 46 minutes.
"It was a difficult match today with difficult conditions, and it was very hot on court," Kvitova said after the match. "There were moments when I lost myself in the first set. I was down and I tried to fight back, which I did and I'm very happy with that today."
Wang Yafan, who was on her second U.S. Open tour, also attend the women's doubles competition on Thursday alongside compatriot Wang Qiang who had booked a singles' third round berth on Wednesday.
However, the doubles first round witnessed Coco Vandeweghe from United States/Ashleigh Barty from Australia defeat Wang/Wang 6-3, 6-0.
