Wimbledon winner Angelique Kerber was eliminated from the WTA tournament in Wuhan/China in the round of 16. The 30-year-old Kielerin lost last year’s unseeded finalist Ashleigh Barty (Australia) in 1:19 hours clearly with 5:7, 1:6.
Barty had reached the final in Wuhan last year, beating three top ten players on the way there with Karolina Pliskova, Jelena Ostapenko and Johanna Konta. Since then, however, the Australian had not won against players from this category.
Kerber was quickly trailing 0:3 and 2:5, but in the first set she managed to equal the score 5:5. After that, however, the German Fed Cup player only managed to win one match. It is always very difficult to play against Kerber, Barty explained immediately after the match on the court. But the good memories of 2017 would also have carried them through this game. Kerber, on the other hand, has been waiting for a real sense of achievement since her triumph at Wimbledon. Last time at the US Open she was eliminated in the third round against Dominika Cibulkova.
This continues the dying of favourites at the WTA Premier 5 tournament. On Tuesday the world number one Simona Halep, Karolina Pliskova and Elina Svitolina said goodbye.
Here the single tableau in Wuhan