Australian Open: Kerber at a fast pace in Round Two – Victory against Friedsam

Angelique Kerber has reached the second round of the Australian Open. The 2016 Melbourne winner won the German duel against Anna-Lena Friedsam.

From Ulrike Weinrich from Melbourne

The tenth victory in a row: Angelique Kerber waved with relief after the work was done,”I’m having fun on the court again. I left the year 2017 completely behind me,”said the Kieler after the 6:0.6:4 in the German first round duel with Anna-Lena Friedsam (Neuwied). While the first set lasted just 17 minutes, Friedsam fought vehemently in the second set. With three consecutive wins in series, Friedsam, who crashed to 388rd place in the world rankings after a shoulder injury, made up for the 4-4 deficit. But with a service winner, the favourite finished the game at the Hisense Arena after 66 minutes. In total, the former number one Kerber won 24 points more than Friedsam (64:40).

“I started well and felt the ball great, but then Anna-Lena got better and better,”explained Kerber, who after a year of forgetting to forget her dream season in 2016. At that time, she had won her first major at the Happy Slam – and eight months later, she had won her first major at the US Open in New York. Last Saturday, Kerber in 21st place in Melbourne had won the title in Sydney, having already lost without defeat at the Hopman Cup in Perth.

In the next round, Kerber could see her ex-coach Torben Beltz again, who is now training Donna Vekic. The Croatian will play Nao Hibino (Japan) on Tuesday.

Maximilian Torterer, who won a match in a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in his career, was also successful on the second day of the tournament. In the German left-handed duel, the Nuremberg player clearly won against Cedrik-Marcel Stebe (Vaihingen/Enz) 6-0,6-3,6-4. It was only last September that Marterer made his Grand Slam debut in New York. However, Carina Witthöft was eliminated after a 5:7,3:6 defeat against the French woman Caroline Garcia (No. 8). In the first set the Hamburg player could not use a 5:3 lead.