The 3rd seed was stunned by a resilient Kiki Bertens 6-2 3-6 6-3 in the first round of Roland Garros 2016.
It wasn’t going to be a straight forward first round affair for the number 3 in the world Angelique Kerber as she faced last week’s WTA Nuremberg singles and doubles champion Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands. The Dutchwoman pulled off perhaps the greatest upset yet in both draws of the 2016 French Open leaving this year’s Australian Open champion with no response to what was nothing short of a magnificent performance.
Kerber, coming from a surprising second round loss in Rome to Eugenie Bouchard (#47) pulled out of Nuremberg last week with a persistent shoulder problem which hadn’t seemed to have disappeared during today’s encounter.
The 28-year-old Grand Slam champion was stunned by Bertens’ aggressive game in the first set, who served magnificently all day and firing 10 winners to claim the set in just over 25 minutes.
However, the German recovered some consistency in the second set, and managed to break her opponent’s serve for the first time in the match to go 4-2 up. A down the line winner at 5-3 inspired Kerber to what looked to be the turning point in the match and forced a decider claiming a hard earned set 6-3.
Yet the world number 58 was little intimidated and raced again to an early lead in the final set, breaking Kerber early and putting herself 3-0 up, when the trainer was called for Angelique Kerber who took a somewhat unexpected medical timeout. After a light shoulder massage, the German returned strong holding serve with ease but when things looked most difficult for her, two unforced errors from the Dutchwoman handed over Kerber with 2 break points at 3-1 and what was a vital opportunity to level things up again in the final set.
However, Bertens’ mental strength and class at key points throughout the match persevered again and after two superbly contested rallies, was able to hold serve and put herself 4-1 up, which simply proved too much of a mountain to climb for the third seed at this late point of the match. Kerber was merely able to trouble Bertens again, who continued to serve exceptionally and held her nerve to claim her first win over the German 6-2 3-6 6-3 and earn a place in the second round of Roland Garros.
After today’s major upset, Kiki Bertens will now face either the young Italian Camila Giorgi or French wildcard Alize Lim, who play later on today in Tuesday’s busy afternoon schedule.
