Angelique Kerber struggled in her opening rounds against Tsurenko and Witthoeft who pushed the No. 1 seed to three sets both times. Kristyna Pliskova is on a similar level to those players and she has been playing in good form, getting the win over 29th seed Irina-Camelia Begu, mainly due to her serve. This match didn’t look like a possible upset, but it looked like it could be tricky for the German if Pliskova kept going strong on her serve. However the match itself was much different. Kerber was consistent in her rallies and on her serve, while Pliskova was definitely nervous and was misfiring a lot. That showed one of the key differences between Kristyna and Karolina. Kristyna didn’t keep her cool, and didn’t have a Plan B when her game wasn’t on. Kerber won the set in 21 minutes, giving the Czech only 3 game points. In the second set, Pliskova calmed down a bit and finally found her serve, winning her first game at 0-6 0-2. She kept her game together for much of the set and challenged Kerber, but the German put pressure on Pliskova when she was serving at 4-4, broke and took the match 6-0 6-4. The worrying takeaway for Kerber is that the moment Pliskova started to play solid tennis, she matched Kerber. She faces Vandeweghe next, who is a similar player to Kristyna Pliskova, but overall better and more mentally strong, so this will be a real test for Kerber. It doesn’t look too good with the World No. 1’s title defense in my opinion.
In what was a strong contender for match of the day, and probably the best match possible between two unseeded players, hard-hitting American Coco Vandeweghe took the match to the Canadian and Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard. Both players started on a high level, holding their serves pretty comfortably. First break came at 3-3 with Bouchard serving. She made some unnecessary unforced errors and went down a break which eventually cost her the set. The Canadian re-grouped quickly and went up a break early in the second set. She started moving better, exposing Vandeweghe’s weaknesses that she still had, even though she was playing well. Bouchard held on to her early break and took the second set 6-3. Bouchard kept her insane level going, as she took the early break. At 4-2 in the final set, it seemed to be all over, but at 4-3, she started to make some errors that she was making in the first round, and Vandeweghe took advantage immediately. The American broke back and then followed the key game of the match, Vandeweghe serving at 4-4. After 8 deuces, saving 4 break points and about 14 minutes, Vandeweghe put together a string of 3 great first serves and went up 5-4. In a nerve-wracking finish, both players held, so Bouchard was serving at 5-6. She got to 40-30, but Vandeweghe went for it, and won the match.
