Wimbledon: Angelique Kerber almost flawlessly into the round of 16

Angelique Kerber has reached the round of 16 at Wimbledon for the fifth time in the round of the last 16 thanks to an almost flawless performance, while the tenth seeded Kieler defeated Naomi Osaka (Japan/No. 18) 6-2, 6-4 and did not allow a single break point. On Monday, Kerber will face Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, who won 6-1, 7-6 (7-3) against Carla Suarez Navarro (Spain), who was seeded 27th.

By Ulrike Weinrich from Wimbledon

After 63 minutes Kerber turned her second match point and, after a trembling victory two days earlier, was able to look forward to a really convincing performance this time. The left-hander only made a total of five (!) unforced mistakes. It was the basis for a statement by the two-time Grand Slam winner. “I knew what was coming, and I tried to play my game and be aggressive,” Kerber said and disappeared into the ice bath.

Karolina Pliskova (Czech Republic) is the only top ten player in the round of 16 – the remaining nine have already been eliminated from the illustrious circle. Among others, industry leader Simona Halep (Romania), who unexpectedly failed on Saturday due to Su-Wei Hsieh from Taiwan (6:3, 4:6, 5:7).

Kerber entered the Centre Court, this tennis theatre of dreams, highly concentrated. Almost exactly two years ago, in her dream season 2016, she had reached the final against Serena Williams (USA/5:7, 3:6). “This court is something special, of course,” said the 30-year-old, who also has positive memories of her defeat against the superstar: “I didn’t lose this final, Serena won it. In other words, she couldn’t blame herself much back then.

Before Kerber, Rafael Nadal (Spain/No. 2) had successfully played his third round match on the world’s most famous tennis court against the Australian teenager. England’s football icon Sir Bobby Charlton sat in the Royal Box with his wife.

At the beginning of the game of Germany’s number one, however, the 1966 football world champion briefly disappeared. For a good reason: Almost parallel to the Kerber match, the “Three Lions” fought against Sweden for the semi-finals at the World Cup in Russia. And of course Charlton couldn’t miss that.

But the 80-year-old missed a strong start for the favourite. Kerber’s assessment that there would be a “game with short rallies” against Osaka did not prove to be correct. There were often long baseline duels – mostly with the better end for the former number one, who quickly took a 2-0 lead after a break and a service game won to zero.

Osaka, who is trained by Munich’s Sascha Bajin, tried again and again to take the initiative. But Kerber, unlike the 20-year-old Asian, acted almost flawlessly and took advantage of her chances at temperatures of 30 degrees Celsius. Osaka caused her a bitter defeat in the first round of the US Open last year, causing the defending champion to retire early in New York.

With their eighth Unforced Error so far, Osaka Kerber won the set after 27 minutes. “Angie” had made just one unforced mistake before. By the time she took the lead 2-0, Bobby Charlton had long since returned to his seat. Even after that, little changed in the course of the game. However, Osaka now increasingly indicated how much potential she has.

Two days after her second round trembling victory over three sets against 18-year-old qualifier Claire Liu (USA), Kerber remarked self-critically: “I know I have to improve. It took me a little while to get into the tournament.” Now it has arrived.