Mutua Madrid Open 2021, Quarter-Finals: Ashleigh Barty vs Petra Kvitova Preview, Prediction and Head-to-Head

It’s a blockbuster quarter-final at the Mutua Madrid Masters 2021, featuring the current women’s World No.1 against the 2019 runners-up.

While Ashleigh Barty’s love affair with clay continues, with the 25-year-old Australian taking her unbeaten streak on the surface to 14 matches with a fourth-round win over Pole Iga Swiatek, veteran Czech star Petra Kvitova has also made her way to the last-eight on the back of some impressive wins.

Ashleigh Barty beat Iga Swiatek to reach Mutua Madrid Open QF

Many called it a tricky test for Barty against the reigning French Open champion who is a different beast on clay, but the experienced Australian made relatively short work of 19-year-old Swiatek to reach the quarter-finals of another Tour event this year.

The 7-5, 6-4 win marks the extension of a hot streak that has seen her lift three Tour titles this year already, with two of them — Charleston and Stuttgart – coming on clay.

Though Swiatek started well and built up a good head of momentum early into the piece on Monday, Barty came away with the decisive break and held on to her advantage to take the opening set.

The second set followed a similar pattern as the Pole couldn’t take the match to a decider.

Kvitova had a relatively tougher passage to the last-eight as she had to recover from losing a set to battle past the tricky Russian Veronika Kudermetova.

The 31-year-old took the first set comfortably but lost ground to go down in the second. However, she did well to fight back and eventually put it past the World Number 28 to set up the Barty clash.

Petra Kvitova holds a 5-4 head-to-head lead over Ashleigh Barty

There isn’t much to separate the Aussie from the Czech in head-to-head battles, with the 12-ranked Kvitova currently holding a slender 5-4 lead over Barty.

However, with the kind of form she has been showing on dirt this year, there’s every chance of the 26-year-old leveling up the head-to-head record in the Madrid quarters.

Kvitova picked up a title in Dubai and came close to adding a few more this year.

Read More: Ashleigh Barty Topples Reigning French Open Champion Iga Swiatek at Mutua Madrid Open 2021

She is a handful on clay as her 2019 run in Madrid shows and, in fact, beat Barty in their only meeting on clay in the 2012 French Open.

So, expect another knife-edged battle when these two players clash for a place in the semifinals at Mutua Madrid Open 2021.