World No. 4 looked close to her best as she demolished Viktoria Kuzmova 6-4, 6-0 at the Aviation Club. Czech set to face Hsieh Su-wei in tough last-four battle. LONDON: Petra Kvitova has been her own worst critic so far this week, but even she allowed herself a smile after the Czech finally illustrated she is a contender for the the title. The world No. 4 beat Viktoria Kuzmova 6-4, 6-0 with the sort of display that was the polar opposite of her sluggish, flat displays earlier in the week. Coming into the quarterfinal Kvitova looked anything but possible champion material. She was taken all the way by both Katerina Siniakova and Jennifer Brady and admitted all was not well with her game. On Center Court against Kuzmova, however, the 28-year-old looked more like the player who reached last month’s Australian Open final and a two-time Wimbledon champion. And after she had wrapped up the match, completed in just 62 minutes, Kvitova admitted she was finally feeling in good form. “I am pleased. Definitely more than those two matches before,” she said. “I didn’t give her any, like, time to do her job, maybe turn the match on her way.” Having spent more than five hours on court in the first two rounds there was was finally some urgency about Kvitova. She admitted she came into the tournament undercooked and arrived in the last-eight tired. But against Kuzmova she dominated from the start and once she secured the first set — breaking in the decisive 10th game — there was only going to be one winner. “Yeah, I was up pretty quickly, but I lost those games (in the first set),” Kvitova said. “It was about that game when she was serving for five-all. She played the two double-faults. From that game, I think I was really fired up. “Even in the first game of the second set, I was already facing breakpoints again, which I didn’t want to. But it was probably the key game of the second set.” Kvitova said she felt her game was on the rise again after losing the Australian Open final to Naomi Osaka and winning just one match a week later in Russia. “Today was the first day of the better days on the court,” she said. “It’s been tough since I came from Australia and St. Petersburg. “I’m glad that it’s on the way up.” Next up for her is a semifinal clash against Hsieh Su-wei. The world No. 31 from Taiwan won the last six games to beat fourth seed Karolina Pliskova 6-4, 1-6, 7-5. Kvitova has won all four of her meetings against Hsieh, most recently at the Sydney International in January. But that will count for little and on current form Hsieh looks like she will take some beating, having staged a remarkable fightback to beat another Czech. Pliskova had looked in command serving for the set at 5-1 and then 5-3. The persistent Hsieh kept up the pressure, narrowing the gap and levelling with a second straight break at five-all. Hsieh then held for 6-5 and clinched the upset a game later on a second match point after two hours. “I’m so excited, I was screaming like a baby when I won,” Hsieh said. “It was a tough comeback.” “She had a lot of aces (nine), I’m just happy I was able to make it back.”