Angelique Kerber (29) has lost the new edition of the Olympic finals in Rio and said goodbye to the WTA tournament in Luxembourg after the first round.
The former world number one from Kiel was defeated by Monica Puig from Puerto Rico late on Tuesday evening after 1:28 hours 3:6,4:6.Kerber also had to admit defeat at the 2016 Summer Games.
Puig had an early break in both sets to make the win perfect.The German had enough chances to relieve her opponent of the serve, but Angie was unable to use any of her eight break points.
While the top seeded Kerber scored her ninth opening defeat this season, Andrea Petkovic (30) and Sabine Lisicki (28) fought their way into the last sixteen.Petkovic won against Croatian Petra Martic 6-1,3-6,7-6 (7-5) and won the match.In the third set, the Darmstadt player had already led 4:1, defended three match points at a score of 5:6 and finally won after 2:23 hours.
Lisicki (Berlin) defeated the Romanian Mihaela Buzarnescu 7:6 (7:3), 7:6 (7:4).For the former Wimbledon finalist, who had missed the entire Asian tour due to a leg injury, it was the first match since her first-round out at the US Open in New York at the end of August.
Lisicki will now face Naomi Broady, a British qualifier who beat Tatjana Maria (Bad Saulgau/No. 6)6-2,6-2.Petkovic is confronted with the Dutch player Kiki Bertens, who was second in the rankings and against whom she only won two sets in Beijing at the beginning of October.The two German Fed Cup players had slipped into the main field of the 250,000 dollar indoor tournament with wildcards.
Carina Witthöft (Hamburg) had already fought her way into the round of sixteen on Monday, where she will meet Yevgeniya Rodina (Russia).