This year’s Australian Open champion and 2015 Stuttgart winner Angelique Kerber and Garbine Muguruza have reached the quarter finals at the Porsche Indoor Tennis Grand Prix at the Porsche Arena in Stuttgart.
Kerber came back from a set down to overcome her compatriot Annika Beck 4-6 6-3 6-1.
Both German players met earlier this year at last January’s Australian Open when Kerber beat her compatriot 6-4 6-0 in the fourth round and went on to clinch her first Grand Slam title.
Both players traded breaks for four consecutive games in the first set. Kerber went up a break twice but Beck got both breaks back to draw level to 3-3. They went on serve until the 10th game when Beck broke serve at deuce to clinch the first set after 46 minutes. Beck won 82 percent of her points from her first serve to Kerber’s 61 percent.
Both players struggled on their serve in the second set. There were breaks in all service games apart from the fourth game when Kerber held serve at deuce which proved to be crucial. Beck broke three times but could not hold any of her service games. Kerber broke five times, including in the 9th game for 6-3 to force the match to the decider.
Kerber dominated the third set breaking twice in the second and fourth games to cruise to a 6-1 win. Kerber hit 46 winners to 31 unforced errors.
Garbine Muguruza eased through Timea Babos 6-2 6-2 in 1 hour and 17 minutes. Both players traded breaks in the first three games. Muguruza broke in the opening game, but Babos broke straight back. Muguruza broke again in the third game and consolidated the break by holding her serve in the fourth game for 3-1. Muguruza broke for the third time in the fifth game to pull away to 4-1. Babos got the break back but Muguruza broke for the fourth game in the seventh game for 5-2 and closed out the first set to love.
Muguruza got a double break in the first and third games and never looked back to take a comfortable 6-2 win in the second set.
Karolina Pliskova edged past 2015 Roland Garros finalist Lucie Safarova 7-6 (7-4) 4-6 7-5 in over two hours and a half. Pliskova, who had beaten Safarova in their two previous head-to-head matches, clinched the first set at the tie-break after both players went on serve in the first 12 games. Safarova won her first set of her 2016 to force the match to the third set. Safarova got the first break of the match in the 8th game to take a 5-3 lead. In a trade of three consecutive breaks Pliskova broke straight back to 15 for 4-5 but Safarova broke again on the set point in the 10th game.
In the third set Safarova broke serve in the fourth game to 30 to take a 3-1 lead but Pliskova broke in the next two service games to take a 4-3 lead. At 5-3 Safarova saved four match points.
Pliskova served for the match at 5-4 but Safarova broke back to draw level to 5-5. Pliskova broke again to 15 in the 11th game for 6-5 before serving out on her seventh match point at deuce for 7-5 after 2 hours and 30 minutes. Pliskova will face Ana Ivanovic in the Round of 16.
Andrea Petkovic beat Kristina Mladenovic 6-2 6-4 to score her fourth consecutive win over the French player. The German player set up a Round of 16 match against Agnieszka Radwanska.
