Angelique Kerber reached the quarter-finals of a WTA tournament for the first time in the second half of the year.
Three-and-a-half weeks after her frustrating first-round loss as defending champion at the US Open, the 29-year-old from Kiel won her second match in Tokyo after starting difficulties 7-5,6-3 against the Russian Daria Kasatkina.In the third duel with Kasatkina this year it was Kerbers first victory.
In the round of the last eight of the one-million-dollar hard court event, former number one in the world, which has slipped to 14th place in the WTA ranking, will meet Czech Karolina Pliskova, who is the runner-up in the US Open Final 2016.At that time Kerber won her second Grand Slam title in New York.
Kerber, who last stood on Eastbourne lawn in the quarter-finals at the end of June and lost to Brit Johanna Kontakt, turned her first match ball in the yawningly empty Ariake Coliseum after 1:21 hours.Against the world rankings-32.Kasatkina the German was trailing 0:3 in the first set, but then she got caught.
Spain’s Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza won her first game in Tokyo as the world’s number one match against Olympic champion Monica Puig from Puerto Rico 6-4,6-0.
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