Kvitova and Osaka to battle for title and No 1

Petra Kvitova and Naomi Osaka will do battle for the Australian Open title and the world number one ranking at Melbourne Park tomorrow.

Kvitova reached her first grand slam final outside of Wimbledon with a 7-6 (2) 6-0 victory over surprise package Danielle Collins before US Open champion Osaka made it back-to-back finals by beating Karolina Pliskova – conqueror of Serena Williams – 6-2 4-6 6-4.

For Kvitova, the achievement is the latest step in her inspiring recovery from the stabbing by an intruder at her home in December 2016 that nearly ended her career.

The damage to the fingers on her playing hand was so severe that doctors feared she may not play professionally again, while the mental scars were just as deep.

The 28-year-old, who won her second title at Wimbledon in 2014, said: “I’m still not really believing that I’m in the final. I didn’t know even if I was going to play tennis again.

“It wasn’t really a nice time to be dealing with everything. It wasn’t only physically, but mentally it was very tough as well.

“It took me really a while to believe in the people around me again, and especially men, for sure.”

Osaka continues to look every inch the real deal as the next dominant star of women’s tennis and she extended her record of consecutive slam victories to 11, becoming the first woman since Jennifer Capriati in 2001 to follow up a maiden title by reaching the next slam final.

Petra Kvitova.