WTA Strasbourg: Kerber gets his first victory on sand
At the WTA 250 tournament in Strasbourg, Angelique Kerber won her opening match against the young Frenchwoman Diane Parry 6: 3 and 6: 4.
by Dennis Heineman
last edit: May 16, 2022, 08:58 pm
Angelique Kerber (WTA No. 22) had played four matches on sand before this duel this year. The first two of these were very competitive. As part of the Billie Jean King Cup, the 34-year-old had to bow to Kazakh players Yulia Putintseva and Jelena Rybakina in three sets. Another three-set defeat against Anett Kontaveit followed in Stuttgart, before Rome could not win anything against Cari Gauff in the first round.
Things went better in the first round of the 250cc tournament in Strasbourg. Kerber, who was second behind Karolina Pliskova, was able to break the 19-year-old Diane Parry (WTA No. 96) once in the first set and then hold her serve, which gave her the 6:3 in the first round. She did something similar in the second round, when she was able to use her sixth breakball when the score was 3:3. Although she then conceded a break herself, in the end she prevailed 6:4.
Kerber put on two in Strasbourg
Although Kerber was still a size too big for Parry, her wonderful one-handed backhand should be mentioned at this point, which she tried longline again and again. But Kerber was defensively strong as usual. Only the darkness could have thwarted her plans: If she hadn't made it 6:4, the game would have been interrupted. The second seeded Kerber will meet Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the next round.