Tennis: Petra Kvitova beats Victoria Azarenka 6-2, 7-6 in St Petersburg Trophy 2nd round

Top seed Petra Kvitova beat Victoria Azarenka 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) in the St Petersburg Ladies Trophy second round on Wednesday. The Australian Open finalist won eight successive games to take control of the match before needing a tie-break to ensure victory over Belarusian. Kvitova, playing her opening match after a first-round bye, went from trailing 2-1 in the first set to a 3-0 lead in the second. The Czech then double-faulted on match point at 5-1 to let Azarenka back into the match. Kvitova will next face either eighth-seeded Donna Vekic or lucky loser Veronika Kudermetova in the quarter-finals. Maria Sharapova withdrew from the tournament with a right shoulder injury, hours before she was to play Daria Kasatkina in the second round.