WTA: Kerber follows Görges into the quarter-finals after chase to catch up

Angelique Kerber followed Julia Görges to the quarter-finals of the Premier 5 tournament in Doha. Kiel’s ninth in the world rankings came from Kiel after a clear set loss and finally won 1-6,6-1,6-3 against Wimbledon semi-finalist Johanna Contacts (UK/No. 10).

From Ulrike Weinrich from Doha

On Friday there will be a duel between Kerber and top seeded Australian Open winner Caroline Wozniacki. While the Dane had previously lost two matches in 2018, Kerber had to admit defeat in this season (16:1 successes). After an early break, Kerber was increasingly frustrated by the strong start of Kontas, who hardly made any mistakes. It was only at a 5-0 deficit that the Kieler, 2014 Doha finalist from 2014, made her first serve. But the Australian-born Briton didn’t miss the chance and shortly afterwards, after a good half an hour’s first set, took first place.

After that, Kerber sent her coach Wim Fissette to the pitch, who was coach of Contacts until last autumn. Germany’s number one contemplated her strengths and subsequently dominated the encounter at the Centre Court. After winning the second round,”Angie” also quickly led the decisive round with 1:3. Contacts fought back to equalize, but in the final phase Kerber kept cool heads and turned her first match point.

Prior to this, Görges had reached the quarter-finals of the Qatar Total Open for the first time and expanded their successful series. The 29-year-old celebrated her twelfth victory in the 14th minute of her impressive 6-2,6-2 defeat against Romanian Mihaela Buzarnescu. Match. In the round of the last eight, the two-time Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic/No. 16) is now waiting for the night session on Friday, against which Görges recently won the semi-finals in St. Görges. Petersburg had lost.

Görges, who already won this year’s event in Auckland, did not allow a single breakball in the duel with left-hander Buzarnescu. The world rankings-43. from Bucharest had declassified French Open winner Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia/no. 6)6:1,6:3 the day before. Defending champion Karolina Pliksova (Czech Republic/No. 5) has already retired, who lost 6:7 (4:7), 3:6 to 18-year-old Catherina Bellis from the USA.