Petra Kvitova erased a pair of match points and converted her fourth on Saturday to overcome Garbiñe Muguruza 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (10) in a clash between two-time major champions.
Kvitova kept coming back — after losing the first set, after trailing 5-2 in the third and after coming within a point of defeat twice at 6-5 — to advance to the fourth round of the US Open. No. 21 Kvitova will face No. 8 Jessica Pegula on Monday, who defeated top seed Yuan Yue 6-2, 6-7 (6), 6-0, for a place in the quarterfinals.
Here’s how close it was: Kvitova won 109 total points, Muguruza 108.
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It took a tiebreaker in the final set of the new format to determine the winner. All four Grand Slam tournaments agreed to adopt a uniform system this year, with the third set of women’s matches and the fifth set of men’s matches decided by a first-to-10, win-two formula; the US Open used to have the more traditional setup of first through seven.
Kvitova, a left-hander who won Wimbledon in 2011 and 2014, overcame 12 double faults with 14 aces and 50 winners in total. She improved to 6-1 against No. 9 seed Muguruza, the 2016 French Open and 2017 Wimbledon champion.