Seventh seed Petra Kvitova has fought her way into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open with a three-set victory over Maria Sakkari.
Sakkari - cheered on by a exuberant pack of Greek fans - took the opening set but Kvitova, the runner-up to Naomi Osaka 12 months ago, battled back to win 6-7 (4) 6-3 6-2.
Kvitova broke Sakkari four times in the second set and then took a 3-0 lead in the decider to give her the advantage she needed to put away the stubborn 22nd-seed in two hours, 12 minutes.
The big-hitting Czech hit 33 winners and will face either top seed Ashleigh Barty or American Alison Riske in the last eight.
But it took Kvitova until the final set before she really started showing her A-Game, and she admitted that just had to keep going to get her rhythm back.
"I don't know how I found my game," said Kvitova, when asked about her fightback. "I just kept playing. I knew it would be a difficult match."
