Angelique Kerber stuffed her racket into her bag in frustration, threw her towel into the cheering, applauding crowd and then quickly disappeared through a gate. The Kiel native’s opening match at the French Open in Paris lasted just 1 hour 25 minutes, and then the tournament was over for her.
Kerber lost 4:6, 3:6 to the Dutch player Arantxa Rus, never finding her rhythm during the entire match on the small Court 2. “Of course you’re disappointed, a lot of things didn’t fit together,” said the 36-year-old from Kiel shortly, adding: “Of course I would have liked it to have gone the other way.”
The last German in the tournament is Tamara Korpatsch. The Hamburg native defeated Ashlyn Krueger from the USA in a hard-fought match – 4:6, 6:4, 7:6 (11:9)) after 3 hours and 1 minute. Before that, Kerber, Tatjana Maria, Laura Siegemund, Eva Lys and Jule Niemeier had also failed to overcome their opening hurdle.
Anger about a fan
In fact, Kerber found herself forced onto the defensive by the powerful number 50 in the world rankings, and she repeatedly made avoidable mistakes. In addition, “The weather conditions were not the best for me, they were not my conditions, but it is what it is, I did my best,” she said.
Added to this was the anger over a Dutch fan who shouted onto the court during the set point in the first set. Kerber was irritated and stopped playing, assuming the rally was being interrupted. The referee disabused her of this. “Apparently the rules are such that you can do that.”
The former world number one, who recently reached the round of 16 at the WTA tournament in Rome, got off to a miserable start against Rus. She quickly fell behind 1:4, then equalized, only to lose the first set on her own serve after 44 minutes.
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In the second set, Kerber also immediately conceded a break, again equalizing, but with a total of 24 avoidable errors, she regularly ruined her chances herself. Rus also made 25 unforced errors, but thanks to her risky style of play, she also scored 28 direct points – Kerber only scored 14.
“In the first set, there were one or two points where she was lucky, even on set point,” said Kerber, stressing: “I didn’t think I played badly at all,” but Rus was better in the decisive moments. “I might have needed two or three more matches at this level beforehand,” added the three-time Grand Slam winner.
Kerber now wants to concentrate on the grass season, “Berlin, Bad Homburg, Wimbledon” are her next tournaments. At the end of July she will be back at Roland Garros – for the Olympic Games: “It will definitely be an exciting summer,” said Kerber.
Struff in gentle mode in round two of the French Open
Tennis player Jan-Lennard Struff has easily made it into the second round of the French Open. The 34-year-old beat Argentinian qualifier Román Andrés Burruchaga 6:3, 6:2, 6:1 on Tuesday. After just an hour and a half, the winner of the ATP clay court tournament in Munich converted his second match point. The Warsteiner’s next opponent is the winner of the duel between the number 19 seeded Kazakh Alexander Bublik and the Frenchman Gregoire Barrere. (dpa)
