Petra Kvitova sealed her place in round three of the St Petersburg Ladies Trophy with a straight-sets win against Victoria Azarenka.
The Australian Open finalist, who lost to Naomi Osaka at Melbourne Park last weekend, was playing her first game of the tournament after receiving a first-round bye in Russia.
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The Czech professional tennis player made a stuttering start as she trailed Azarenka 2-1 in the first set before winning eight successive matches to take the set and lead 3-0 in the second.
The 28-year-old Czech spurned a match point at 5-1 and Azarenka fought back to take the set to a tie-break, but the Belarusian failed to take the tie into a deciding third set as Kvitova wrapped up a 6-2 7-6 (7-3) victory.
Kvitova will now face eighth seed Donna Vekic, who beat Veronika Kudermetova 6-4 6-3, in the quarter-finals.
