Angelique Kerber edges Andrea Hlavackova to reach the quarters - Western and Southern Open 2012
World number seven, Angelique Kerber, stalled the run of the 26-year-old Czech, Andrea Hlavackova, in the third round of the Western and Southern Open but not before she was tested to her limits by the 97th ranked Czech.
The match ended up in straight sets 6-4, 7-6(5) but the scores didn’t do justice to the hardworking doubles specialist from Czech Republic who deserved to have another shot at the quarter-final berth in a form of a third set.
Hlavackova didn’t start the match as she would have liked. She dropped the opening serve game and drowned to a trail of 1-4 after losing another breakpoint.
It looked like a piece of cake for the fifth seed German but she was halted in the sixth game of the match that witnessed one breakpoint back for the Czech.
However, the German regrouped and put up a better performance on her serves that didn’t allow her opponent to win the second breakpoint back. Although, the Czech was close on winning the second breakthrough in the eighth game but
squandered three opportunities that didn’t help her cause.
The second set commenced with serve holds at both ends and the see-saw battle continued for the first eight games before a swap of breakpoints was witnessed at the hard courts of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Both players held their serves to love in the following two games to enforce a tie-breaker round. Hlavackova looked good and set to dig deep and enforce the final set into play but the lucky shot from the German that tipped the
top of the net and bounced in the Czech’s court ended the match in favour of her.
Kerber has never lost to the Czech in the five encounters they have contested. However, it was the first battle in two years between the class athletes and an upset was definitely a possibility especially considering the good run
of form of the 26-year-old Czech. However, it was not the case to be.
Angelique Kerber will lock horns with the former world number one, Serena Williams, who is unbeaten since the start of the Wimbledon Championships 2012.
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