Angelique Kerber avenges loss against Monica Niculescu in 4th round – US Open 2011
The two un-seeded player to have made it this far in the US Open were world number 92 Angelique Kerber and world number 68 Monica Niculescu. The two had battled it out on hard court 17 of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis
Center in Flushing Meadows, New York. German Kerber finally won the match in a straight set victory of 6-4, 6-3.
The two had previously met once in their professional career at the Krakow Open which is an ITF pro Tennis Circuit played in Poland. Duelling hard courts of Poland against Kerber, Niculescu eventually survived a mid match lapse
and was thus, leading in the head-to-head score 1-0. Kerber was given a chance by fate to avenge her loss and surprisingly Kerber, who was the lowest ranked player managed to avail the opportunity.
After winning the pitch Kerber opened the score board at 1-0, in the following four games both the players saw a blow for a blow in their game points. In the sixth game Niculescu was able to hold her serve to even the score at
3-3, she then went on to holding her serve in the seventh game to see a brief lead of 3-4 but as Kerber broke back in the following game, the score again balanced out at 4-4. This was crucial stage of the game, as both the players were fighting to secure a
berth in the quarter final. Nevertheless, Kerber held her serve during the ninth game and in the tenth eventually went on to breaking her adversary for the last time to see a 54 minutes set victory.
Even though, Kerber had committed 19 unforced errors and three double faults, she was still capable of bagging 3 more points than Niculescu and eventually by hitting a walloping 21 winners in the first set, she secured a first
set victory.
In the second set Kerber again opened the set to with a 1-0 and both the players kept on winning on their serve but Niculescu was to break first, however, Kerber was not to be left behind and broke back to equalize the score to
2-2 then in the sixth game at 3-3. Finally breaking her opponent for the third time in the eighth game, Kerber she took the lead and served the match at 6-3 in the ninth game.
Both the players capitalized on their break points but by smashing 17 winners and an ace Kerber was able to win the match and the set.
Never being beyond the third round of a Grand Slam previously, Kerber was able to secure a berth in the quarter final of the US Open 2011.
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