Despite a strong performance, Angelique Kerber missed the semi-final of the Premier 5 tournament in Doha. The Kieler lost 6:7 (4:7), 6:1,3:6 against industry leader Caroline Wozniacki and won her second defeat in the 18th minute. Seasonal match of the season.
From Ulrike Weinrich from Doha
At the Players Party last Monday evening at the Four-Seasons-Hotel, the friendly Kerber and Wozniacki spent a nice evening. A “beautiful girls’ night”, as the Danish called it. But four days later, they didn’t get anything at the Centre Court in the Khalifa International Tennis Complex. After 2:20 hours, the Australian Open winner turned her first match point against the eighth seeded Kerber.
Thus, the dream of a German semi-final in the Qatar Total Open has also come true. Julia Görges will face two-time Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic/No. 16) in her quarter-finals late Friday evening.
Kerber and Wozniacki, who won their first Grand Slam title almost exactly three weeks ago in Melbourne, played an intense game with long rallies from the start,”I go out there and don’t even see who’s on the other side. I’m just trying to look at myself and play my game. As I have done in the last few weeks “, Angie had announced in the tennisnet conversation.
The left-hander then appeared highly concentrated and immediately used her first breakball for the 2:1 lead. But on his own serve, Kerber missed to close the set. Instead, Wozniacki resembled Wozniacki in the 14th century. The pair’s 5:5 duel. In the tiebreak, the world number one was a bit more determined and profited from a hand error of the two-time major winner in her second set ball. The fact that the opening run alone lasted 1:12 hours says everything about the balance of the encounter.
Notwithstanding the slight setback, Kerber was able to raise her level even further and initially prevented the top-setters from developing. Wozniacki scored only eleven of 37 points in the second set. In the decisive round, the game was once again on the edge of the knife. Kerber, Doha finalist from 2014, managed to break right away in the first game, but immediately lost her service. Both of them didn’t wobbled afterwards in their service games until Wozniacki mkit 5:3 took the lead and kept their cool heads afterwards.