Venus Williams bows out to Angelique Kerber in second round – Mutua Madrid Open 2012
Former world number one, Venus Williams, was underplayed by the 12th seed, Angelique Kerber, with a breadstick at the Mutua Madrid Open 2012 on Monday. She bear a 4-6, 1-6 shock at the hands of the world number 14 in the second round of this WTA
(Women’s Tennis Association) Premier Mandatory event held in Spain.
The American wild card entrant showed drastic skills in this 64-minute duel, subsequently crashing out from this tournament in the round of 32. Kerber on the other hand not only avenged her loss at the Australian Open three years ago but also levelled the
head-to-head series by 1-1 against Williams.
Williams made a disappointing start at the Park Manzanares and after gifting away her opening two serves, she fell at 0-3. Despite snatching one break back in the very next game, she could not recover and eventually endured a 4-6 loss.
Ranked 72nd in the WTA Premier Rankings, Williams stepped off steam in the follow-up set. She lost her serve three times and went 0-5 down. The American rebounded in the sixth game and grabbed one break back, preventing a bagel. However, she gifted
away her serve again in the last game and lost the set with a breadstick.
The German number two on the other end played her best tennis in this epic encounter. She clobbered a much higher first serve share of 74 per cent as compared to Williams’ 51 per cent and brilliantly clicked 24 out of 32 points on it.
"I'm very happy I could beat Venus. She's a great player, a great champion and has won so many Grand Slams," Kerber said. "I played very well from the first point, so I'm very happy about it. It means a lot to me to win against her."
Kerber will face the Chinese number one, Li Na, who crippled the local wild card entrant, Silvia Soler-Espinosa, with a breadstick to set-up this match.
Venus sister Serena faced a good fortune earlier that day. She crushed the Russian star, Elena Vesnina, with a breadstick in 69 minutes to power into the second round.
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