French Open: Angelique Kerber beats Kiki Bertens and reaches the round of 16

Angelique Kerber has reached the round of 16 of Roland Garros on Saturday. In the third round of the French Open Kerber beat Kiki Bertens from the Netherlands 7-6(4), 7-6(4) and now faces Caroline Garcia in the round of the last 16.

In two hard-fought sets, Kerber prevailed in the tie-break, unpacking her best tennis in the important moments. Bertens had the opportunity to serve himself in a third set in the second set at 5:4, but acted much too hastily and cashed the immediate re-break.

“I don’t really know what made the difference,” Kerber said after the match at Eurosport. “But I really took every ball and I was incredibly glad I won the match.”

Kerber beat 22 winners, while Bertens even scored 39. But in the end, the slightly favoured Madrid finalist made 52 unforced mistakes.

“It was physically very difficult, I tried to focus on myself. I’m back in the second week of a Grand Slam for the first time in a long time, but I’ll be working on myself again tomorrow,” Kerber said.

After 1:44 hours, two-time Grand Slam winner Kerber turned her first match point. In the first two rounds, Kerber needed exactly 60 minutes to win the German duel against Mona Barthel and the Romanian Ana Bogdan.