Anastasia Potapova has won her first ever match against a top 10 player after stunning Angelique Kerber 6-4 6-2 to reach the second round at Roland Garros.
The Russian was too good for the fifth seed as she didn’t look like she had recovered from her foot injury in time. As a result Kerber’s quest for the career grand slam has ended.
This now means the German has lost in the first round at Roland Garros for three of the past four years as she will have to wait to win the one slam that has eluded her.
As for Potapova it is the biggest win of her career and will play Yafan Wang or Marketa Vondrousova in the second round.
It was a slow start from the Wimbledon champion as she conceded the early break to Potapova after some big hitting from the Russian.
The German was trying to feel her groove after playing her first tournament since the foot injury she suffered in Madrid a few weeks ago.
Early rustiness was soon settled as she forced some errors with some good forehands to recover the early break in the opening set.
Despite the setback the 18 year-old continued to hit with aggression and precision as she tested Kerber’s rusty movement.
Another share of breaks happened in the sixth and seventh games as both had moments of great shot-making but also costly errors.
The set was going to boil down to who would crack first and eventually it would be the fifth seed as she blew a 40-0 lead.
Some power hitting saw Potapova capitalise on a poor service game from Kerber as she won five points in a row to break for the set to take a 6-4 lead.
There was no stopping the talented and confident Russian as she dominated a lacklustre and unmotivated Kerber as she broke twice with ease.
A 4-0 lead seemed to install some aggressive play in the German who wanted to at least narrow the scoreboard as some powerful forehands saw her get one of the breaks back.
However this was only preventing the inevitable as Potapova scored the biggest win of her career to reach the second round for Roland Garros.
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A fantastic win which showed how confident she is as a player taking the match to the Wimbledon champion without any nerves or fear.
As for Kerber her quest for a career grand slam ends as she looks to rest her ankle for her Wimbledon title defence as she simply didn’t look happy.
The Russian will now play Yafan Wang or Marketa Vondrousova in the second round. In other results so far, there were wins for 31st seed Petra Martic and Johanna Larsson.
As for Martic, she dispatched Ons Jabeur 6-2 6-1 in convincing fashion as she could pose a dangerous threat to Karolina Pliskova’s Roland Garros hopes.
While Johanna Larsson was a 6-3 6-4 winner over Magdalena Rybarikova and could face Garbine Muguruza in round two.
