Angelique Kerber reigns supreme over Chanelle Scheepers in round two – AEGON International 2012
German number one, Angelique Kerber, continued with her sublime form of the season at the AEGON International tournament by dumping the 43rd ranked South African competitor, Chanelle Scheepers, in the second round clash.
The world number eight took barely 67 minutes to wrap up victory in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2, earning a place in the quarter-final draw of the grass court event in Eastbourne, United Kingdom, on Wednesday.
The 24-year-old German has been victorious against Scheepers in their last two encounters. She first outplayed the South African in the 2009 US Open Championships and then again last year at Dallas, USA. Both of her prior victories
were in gruelling three sets but it was a far comprehensive win for the German on Wednesday afternoon. She spared just five games for her in the entire matchup to lead 3-0 in the head-to-head series against Scheepers.
The unseeded South African didn’t appear in the best of her form in the matchup against the fifth seeded German and was found struggling with her shot making on most occasions. She won a thrilling three-setter against the other
German contender, Mona Barthel, in the opening round of the tournament but couldn’t do much against the belligerence of Kerber. She tried to resist the onslaught from the top-tenner with three break points but suffered seven out of nine cracking ones from
her to finish on the losing side in the end.
Kerber delivered 72 per cent of her first serve on target and won 21 out of 41 points on it. She backed it up by winning 15 out of 26 first return points on Scheepers’ serve and kept clinching the all-crucial points in the contest
to come out as the winner.
The opening set witnessed a total of six break points being exchanged between the two contenders. Kerber remained on top of her opponent with four serve breaks and pocketed the first set at 6-3 to get one up in the match. The following
set initiated with break points from both ends to reach 2-2. The fifth seeded German then shifted her gears once again, breaking her opponent in the sixth and eighth games to conclude victory at 6-2.
With the top-three seeded contenders, Agnieszka Radwanska, Petra Kvitova and Caroline Wozniacki, out of the tournament in the very first round, it gives a great opportunity to Kerber to lift her third WTA championship title this
year. She will face Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova, in the quarter-finals.
Tags: