WTA: Angelique Kerber in Round Two of Rome

The former world number one Angelique Kerber is the only German to have entered the second round of the WTA tournament in Rome. The Kieler won her first round match against Kazakh Zarina Diyas 6:2, 7:6 (8:6) and now faces either the Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu or the Chinese Peng Shuai.

All games on the second day on the beautiful course of Foro Italico had started with a considerable delay after hours of rain interruption. Kerber, number twelve in the world rankings, shot Diyas 2-5 in the second set and turned her second match point after 1:31 hours.

Kerber had to cancel her start in Madrid due to thighs problems, after the fed Cup in Stuttgart and the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix did not go as planned. Kerber is seeded eleventh in Rome, Karolina Pliskova could be the first top player to wait in the round of 16.

Previously, Fed Cup player Laura Siegemund (Metzingen) had lost 6:7 (5:7), 2:6 against the Russian Elena Vesnina from the clay court tournament endowed with 3.35 million dollars. The German number two behind Kerber, Julia Görges (Bad Oldesloe) had cancelled her start in the “Eternal City” due to illness. Last year’s Stuttgart winner Siegemund only kept up with Vesnina in the narrow first round.

Here the single tableau of the ladies in Rome