The former world number one Angelique Kerber continued her successful series in 2018. At their dress rehearsal for the Australian Open, which starts next Monday (15. till 28. January) Kerber won in the second round of the WTA tournament in Sydney against former champion Venus Williams (USA) in second place 5:7,6:3,6:1. In the quarter-finals, Kerber will now face Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova.
“I feel really good. I say goodbye to 2017 and am happy that the new year has begun. I’m glad I won against Venus. I’ve had some good games in the last few days,”said Kerber:”It’s good to have a lot of games ahead of Melbourne. Even short games.”
Against 37-year-old Williams, Kerber played well at first, took the lead with a break, but missed two set points at a score of 5:4 and then lost the set due to many easy mistakes.
Kerber resumed his fight, played more actively and won the second set after three breaks 6:3. After 1:52 hours she converted her fifth match point at 23.48 local time. Due to heavy rain the game had started late.
The two-time Grand Slam winner has been in a quarter-finals for the first time since the tournament in Tokyo in September 2017. In the first round, the Czech Lucie Safarova had also defeated Kerber in three sets after almost two and a half hours.
On Sunday, the two-time Grand Slam winner, together with Alexander Zverev (Hamburg), had been in the final of the Hopman Cup in Perth and convinced with good performances at the mixed tournament. Kerber had remained in all four singles without any set loss.