Angelique Kerber had to give up her eighth-final match against Anett Kontaveit at the WTA tournament in Stuttgart (LIVE on DAZN) due to an injury and is thus eliminated as the last German. At the score of 0:6, 0:2 the woman from Kiel, who was obviously plagued by problems on her right thigh, finished the game prematurely.
Previously, defending champion Laura Siegemund (Metzingen) had already failed on Thursday after a 4:6, 6:4, 3:6 defeat against Coco Vandeweghe (USA) in the round of the last 16. This means that all five Germans who started in the Porsche Arena with a prize money of 816,000 dollars have been eliminated from the clay court tournament.
The day after the successful Fed Cup revanche against Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic), Kerber had not been at the same level of performance against Kontaveit right from the start. After a quarter of an hour the 30-year-old was trailing 0:5, was subsequently treated and initially disappeared in the cabin.
With a bandaged thigh, Kerber returned to the field a little later, but continued to look tarnished. During the break she consulted with her coach Wim Fissette and decided to continue playing. However, the former world number one was no longer competitive, so she finished the match prematurely after 36 minutes.#
Siegemund (Metzingen) had found their way into the game against the world rankings-16th Vandeweghe in the early afternoon. The almost one-year injury break due to a cruciate ligament rupture was hardly noticeable to the previous year’s winner at the beginning. But in the middle of the first set, US open semi-finalist Vandeweghe took the initiative and deservedly won the first set.
In the second heat, Siegemund fought her way back into the match, suddenly becoming the more active player again. Because Vandeweghes error rate increased massively, the local heroine managed the compensation. In the third movement, however, the balance of power changed again. Siegemund could not keep the pressure high enough and finally had to admit defeat after 2:27 hours.
Germany’s number one Julia Görges (Bad Oldesloe), like Carina Witthöft (Hamburg) and Antonia Lottner (Düsseldorf), had already failed at their opening round. Favourites in the top-class field include the world number one Simona Halep (Romania) and Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza (Spain).