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Australia's Ashleigh Barty has lost to Petra Kvitova in the final of the WTA tournament in Birmingham, one of the key warm-up events for Wimbledon.
Kvitova showed she will be a serious contender for a third Wimbledon title after beating Barty 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in just her second tournament since returning from a knife attack injury.
The Czech, who won Wimbledon in 2011 and 2014, suffered a knife attack during a robbery at her home in December that left her with a damaged hand and sidelined her until last month's French Open.
Barty, who had taken time out from the sport to play cricket in the Women's Big Bash League, had pulled off an upset in the semi-final, beating Spain's Garbine Muguruza, the 2015 Wimbledon runner-up.
Her punchy and tenacious approach was effective again, as she lost one point in her first four service games and took the first set with some comfort.
But Kvitova settled into her rhythm in the second, taking a 5-1 lead before stuttering a little at the end of the set with two double-faults handing her opponent a break.
The Czech kept her composure and took the contest into a third set, where she broke in Barty's first service game.
Barty, who won her first WTA singles title in Malaysia earlier this year, was in no mood to surrender however, breaking back for 2-2, only for Kvitova to respond in kind and then run away with the match.
"It was an amazing week, an amazing tournament. From my first hits on the grass I felt great, it was encouraging to get into the grass season," Kvitova said.
"I came to play, to improve my game, I didn't really have any expectation. I wanted to play my best which I showed today and I hope I can keep doing that."
Meanwhile, Barty teamed up with fellow Australian Casey Dellacqua to win the doubles final, defeating Hao-Ching Chan and Shuai Zhang 6-1, 2-6, 10-8.
Reuters/ABC
Topics: tennis, sport, united-kingdom, england
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