Angelique Kerber came back from one set down to beat number 2 seed and last year’s Australian Open finalist Venus Williams 5-7 6-3 6-1 after 1 hour and 53 minutes at the WTA Premier in Sydney and secured her spot in the quarter finals. The match was delayed for two hours by a thunderstorm.
Kerber is still unbeaten this year after winning all her three singles matches in last week’s Hopman Cup in Perth and her first round match against Lucie Safarova after saving two match points. Two years ago the German saved a match point in the first round to beat Misaki Doi and then went on to win her maiden Grand Slam at the Australian Open in Melbourne.
Kerber opened up a 5-3 lead and served for the first set but Williiams won the final four games with a double break and secured the opening set, as Kerber made a double fault.
Kerber won eight consecutive games from 3-3 in the second set to build up a 6-3 5-0 lead after fending off three break points in the first game of the third set. Williams saved three match points on her serve to avoid a bagel but Kerber sealed the win on her fifth opportunity to set up a quarter final against Dominika Cibulkova.
The German star has beaten Williams for the fifth time and the first since the 2016 Wimbledon semifinal.
“I did not start bad, but then Venus was playing good. Every game was close”, said Kerber.
After a successful 2016 season in which she won two Grand Slam titles, won the Olympic silver medal and won eight finals to become the first German world number 1 since Stefi Graf, Kerber reached just one final in Monterrey and did not manage to win consecutive matches at thirteen tournaments in 2017. She ended last season at world number 22 with no titles.
Kerber, who reached the semifinal in Sydney in 2014, will be bidding to become the first German player to take the title at this tournament.
“I had four or five weeks off. where I said I will start again when I am really ready and my mind and body feels ready again to go for it. I had quite a few weeks of really relaxing and spending that time with my friends and family”, said Kerber.
Cibulkova rallied from one break down at 2-3 in the first set to beat Elena Vesnina 6-4 6-4. The Slovakian player scored her fourth win in their last five head-to-head matches and leads 5-4 in her nine clashes against Vesnina.
“At the end of the match it was 3-2 to her in the second set. The way I started to play was just amazing. When I am playing my best tennis, that’s how I play. I was really aggressive inside and I was not afraid to go for it”, said Cibulkova.
Ashleigh Barty beat Australian qualifier Ellen Perez 7-6 (7-4) 6-1 setting up a quarter final against Barbora Strykova.
Daria Gavrilova overcame a second set loss to edge Olivia Rogowska 6-4 1-6 7-5. The match was interrupted at 5-4 in the third set. Rogowska was serving at 4-5 down in the third set when the match was resumed. She fended off one match point but Gavrilova broke serve in the 12th game to clinch the match after 2 hours and 1 minutes.
“I felt like I wasn’t playing that great and I just had too many thoughts coming through my head. I just played a pretty loose first game and just started to overthink a bit much. It just went on, ad then she stepped up and played some good tennis”, said Gavrilova.
Gavriliova has secured her spot in the quarter final against her compatriot Sam Stosur, who came back from one set down to beat Carina Witthoeft 4-6 7-5 6-3. In the semifinal the winner of the match between Gavrilova and Stosur could face Garbine Muguruza, who plays against Kiki Bertens on Wednesday.
