Angelique Kerber has rush into the third round of the French Open: The two-time major winner defeated Ana Bogdan from Romania in two sets and now meets Kiki Bertens from the Netherlands.
By Jens Huiber from Paris
The daily schedule for the French Open follows a clear order: at the top are the matches scheduled for Philippe Chatrier, followed by those on Suzanne Lenglen, Court 1 and Court 18, but then it’s Court 7, the place where there was a double Grand Slam winner on Thursday: Angelique Kerber.
The former world number one was the next top player in the creative game schedule of the French organizers, which did not bother Kerber in her match against Ana Bogdan: Kerber won 6:2 and 6:3 after one hour of play and will face the Dutch player Kiki Bertens in round three, to whom she was defeated in Roland Garros in 2016.
That she flies one in the Paris issue 2018 a little under the radar is not wrong Angelique Kerber. Especially in the last two years, the 30-year-old had always arrived as one of the favourites, and in 2017 she also finished in round one against Ekaterina Makarova.
Against Bogdan, Kerber was far from defeated. Court 7, after all, was already in the German audience for Jan-Lennard Struff’s first game. That should not change, Kerber entered the square shortly before 5:00 pm. The first set lasted 27 minutes, a look into the sky explained the hurry of the best German player of the past years: The danger of a thunderstorm could not be denied.
Bogdan is no newcomer to the WTA tour at 25, but the two rivals had never met before the game in Roland Garros. Bogdan defeated Marketa Vondrousova in three sets in round one, Kerber had no problems against Mona Barthel.
Kerber also managed an early break in the second set, her upcoming opponent Kiki Bertens almost simultaneously got rid of Aliksandra Sasnovich on the adjoining Court 9. Kerber had to fend off a break chance in the sixth game, took the serve from Bogdan to 5:2. war´s but not yet, the Romanian broke back again to 3:5. After exactly 60 minutes the affair was over, Kerber used her third match point for 6:2 and 6:3.
The rush turned out to be unfounded in the end: When Kerber left Court 7 to the applause of the audience, the clouds had already disappeared again.