Angelique Kerber labours past Monica Puig in the second round brawl – Brisbane International 2013
World number five, Angelique Kerber, had to go through a real tough battle against Monica Puig from Puerto Rico in the second round clash of Brisbane International. The fourth seeded German laboured extremely hard for two hours
and 32 minutes before finishing the contest in the decisive set tie-break round. The final match scores were 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(7), in Kerber’s favour.
The German number one was off to a rusty start in the contest, letting her opponent to build up moment early. She took her time to get her eye in the game and by the time she got settled, Puig was had reached the set point. Kerber
lost the opener in a dismal manner but came out very strongly in the following set to bring her opponent back on even terms. Both contenders fought like warriors in the final set and stretched each other to her limits. However, it was the class of the world
number five which prevailed in the end.
The opener was ignited with five successive break points from both sides and Puig got in the driving seat at 4-2. Another cracking break of serve from the underdog contestant sealed the first set at 6-3 in her favour.
The following set took off in the similar fashion to the opener and the four consecutive serve breaks were seen from both ends. The scores finally got tied at 3-3 but it was Kerber who stung the coveted serve break this time and
got to a 5-3 lead subsequently. She had no trouble in serving out of the set at 6-4.
Puig fought back with aggression in the decider and raced to a 3-0 lead right away. Her advantage was frittered away in the seventh game when Kerber managed to break back and levelled the scores to 4-4 in the next game. A tie-break
came into play when the scores were deadlocked at 6-6. The decider also went to the wire and none of the participants was ready to let go. Kerber stood focused until the end and sealed her hard-fought victory at 7-6(7) to reach the quarter-final draw of Brisbane
International.
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