WTA Melbourne: Angelique Kerber with opening victory at the "Quarantine" tournament
Angelique Kerber solved her opening task in three sets at the "Quarantine" tournament in Melbourne, the "Grampians Trophy".
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Feb 03, 2021, 09:40 am
The Kiel woman won 6: 3, 4: 6 and 6: 3 against Katerina Siniakova and is in the round of 16 of the tournament , which was launched especially for the players who were recently in "tough" quarantine in Melbourne.
Kerber converted a 1: 3 deficit in the second round into a 4: 3 lead, but then gave up her serve again - she did not use four break chances to 5: 5. The set equalization was definitely deserved: Siniakova beat 14 winners to Kerber's 5 in set 2 - with an almost identical number of unforced errors. In round three, the three-time major winner, who quickly took a 3-0 lead, won through - Siniakova had completely lost the thread here. The Czech caught up again and managed a rebreak from 1: 5, but in the second attempt Kerber served.
That Kerber was the deserved winner? It could be read from the break chances: Siniakovas only came to 6 pieces - of which she used 4. At Kerber there were 21 (!), But "only" 6 successful ones.
Kerber: "Pressure and expectations removed"
Kerber was one of 72 players in whose flight people who tested positive for the Corona were on board and therefore had to spend 14 days in "hard" quarantine after arriving in Melbourne - without the five hours on the facility in Melbourne Park. "I took off the pressure and the expectations," she said appropriately. After hard training in preparation - according to Kerber one of the best in recent years - she can now "not at all assess where I am". Kerber: "I can't expect to repeat the two weeks in a few days."
Halep, Osaka, Barty on
In the "regular" tournaments, the favorites prevailed for the most part: At the Gippsland Trophy, the top seeded Simona Halep won against Laura Siegemund (6: 2, 6: 4), and number 2 in the tournament, Naomi Osaka, is also through (3: 6, 6: 3, 6: 1 against Katie Boulter). Likewise Elina Svitolina (6: 7 (4), 6: 3, 6: 2 against Jelena Ostapenko). French Open winner Iga Swiatek was eliminated (4-6, 2-6 against Ekaterina Alexandrova).
At the Yarra Valley Classic, the top seed Ashleigh Barty (6: 0, 4: 6, 6: 3 against Marie Bouzkova), Sofia Kenin (5: 7, 7: 5, 6: 2 against Jessica Pegula) and Garbine Muguruza ( 6: 1, 6: 2 against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova).