Angelique Kerber hits back at Sloane Stephens at the BNP Paribas Open 2012: Tennis Special
German tennis star, Angelique Kerber, made an epic comeback to oust the local wild card entrant, Sloane Stephens, in three sets at the BNP Paribas Open 2012, a joint hard court tournament taking place in Indian Wells, United States. She formulated a 2-6,
7-5, 6-4 victory over the 18-year-old to advance into the third round on Friday.
The 18th seed made a nervy start and lost her opening set. However, she sought her rhythm after that and pulled out the match in almost two hours. After earning this success, Kerber not only secured a place in the round of 32 at the Indian Wells
Tennis Garden but also edged in the head-to-head series by 1-0 against the American.
The underdog surprised everyone in the opening set as she blasted powerful forehands to wind up the last five games in a row, ultimately clinching the opener with a 6-2 score line.
Stephens, ranked 90th in the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Premier Rankings, kept her momentum in the following set and cruised to a 5-1 lead with two breaks of serve. She was serving for the match but squandered her chance to earn the limelight.
The frustrated German on the other side of net re-focused at that point. She went berserk and stroke out the proceeding six games successively, subsequently equalising the set scores.
The match was standing at a knife edge but the German showed her class. Kerber swept aside all four breakpoints she encountered to keep her entire serves. On the other hand she cashed in the lone break chance in the fifth game and sealed the decider with
a 6-4 win.
Up next for the 24-year-old is another local contestant, Vania King, who shocked the 13th seed, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, in straight sets to set-up this date. Kerber is looking forward to step-up her game in order to overpower the ultra-fit American
who has not lost a single set in this tournament. The German needs to quickly ward off breakpoints she faces and should capitalise more on her first serve share.
The 12th seeded Jelena Jankovic became a casualty of the day. She was crashed out by the local tennis contender, Jamie Hampton, in almost one and a half hour.
"It was just a bad day of tennis for me," Jankovic said. "I just didn't feel the ball. My legs felt really heavy on the court and I was moving very badly out there. Hampton played solid - she was playing very well, but I was a shadow of myself. I guess it's
one of those days you just come on the court and the legs don't go, the reactions are not there. I tried my best, but it just didn't work today. But credit to Hampton. She did what she had to do. She took advantage."
The blooming wild card enterer will square off against Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia in the round of 32.
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