Angelique Kerber avenges loss against Tamarine Tanasugarn in quarterfinal – HP Japan Open 2011
Third seeded German Angelique Kerber got rid of Thai Tamarine Tanasugarn in the quarterfinal of the HP Japan Open 2011. The competitors battled it out on the outdoor hard courts of Utsubo Tennis Center in Osaka, Japan. It took
the big hitting German one hour and thirty one minutes to overpower the Thai in straight sets of 6-3, 6-4 on Friday the 14th of October 2011.
The players had contested against each other once prior to this event at the Ladies Open in Doha, Qatar. Emerging victorious was Tanasugarn in straight sets of 7-6(3), 6-4 on hard courts and she led in the head-to-head with a 1-0.
Opening the first round of the match was the third seeded German, who not only held her serve but also capitalized on an early break in the second game and successfully placed herself on the scoreboard with a mini lead of 2-0.
She again repeated the feat and the lead had further increased to a 4-0 by the end of the fourth game.
It was in the fifth game that Tanasugarn made a return by breaking her adversary and then as she held serve in the sixth game, she reduced the deficit to 2-4. In the following two games the players won on alternate serves and the
score had progressed to 5-3. The serve switched and Kerber was now serving for the set and she hit a big backhand shot to seal her victory of the opening set.
Commencing the second was Tanasugarn and she got off to an awful start as she was unable to hold her serve in the first and the third game. Mean while, third seeded Kerber capitalized on the two breakpoints and by holding her serve
twice, she reeled off a 4-0 lead on the scoreboard. It was in the fifth game that the Thai had managed to hold a game and she then broke Kerber to close in on the gap but was still a break and game down.
In the seventh and the eighth game the players broke each other one after the other and the score had advanced to a 5-3. Kerber was now only a game away and as the two again won on alternate serves in the last two games, the German
had conquered the set and the match.
The 23 year-old German (Kerber) not only managed to secure a place in the semi-final but expertly equalized the head-to-head score at 1-1.
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