Former world’s tennis number one Angelique Kerber (Germany) shows she is finding her form two-and-a-half weeks before the start of the Grand Slam tournament in Paris – the French Open (Roland Garros). The three-time Grand Slam champion defeated without particular problems the 17th-seeded Veronika Kudermetova (Russia) with 2-0 (6:3, 6:0) and qualified for the third round of the WTA 1000 Rome Open.
Angelique Kerber showed that she continues to pick up the pace after she also started impressively in the first round – a 2-0 (6:1, 6:0) success over Lauren Davis (USA).
Today, in the first set, she made a decisive break for 5:3, and then she was unstoppable in the second, where she took all the games. The 36-year-old German player converted her first point of the match and closed it out in 70 minutes.
This is Angelique Kerber’s first tournament since April in Stuttgart, when she was knocked out in the first round by Emma Raducanu (UK). She returned to the WTA Tour at the start of the year after taking an 18-month maternity leave. In fact, Roland Garros in Paris is the only Slam event she has yet to win. In the next round, Angelique Kerber will face Aliaksandra Sasnovich (Belarus), who eliminated the 14th-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova (Russia) convincingly by 2-0 (6:0, 6:1).
In an all-Russian clash, Diana Schneider knocked out 15th-seeded Liudmila Samsonova by 2-0 (6:1, 6:3) and also advances to the third round. Daria Kasatkina, another Russian and 10th-seeded, stopped Tatjana Maria (Germany) by 2-0 (7:5, 6:1).
Linda Noskova (Czech Republic) eliminated Lucrezia Stefanini (Italy) after 2-0 (6:3, 7:6). The Czech player’s next opponent is Zheng Qinwen (China). The Asian, who is 7th-seeded, went through Shelby Rogers (USA) by 2-0 (6:2, 6:0).
