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January 11, 2017

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Home » Sports » Tennis

Kerber struggling to find rhythm

Source: AP | January 11, 2017, Wednesday | Print Edition

TOP-RANKED Angelique Kerber lost her opening match at the Sydney International yesterday, upset 6-7(5), 2-6 by Darya Kasatkina in a setback ahead of her Australian Open title defense next week.

Kerber, who won last year’s Australian and US Open for her first major titles, has opened the new season with one win in two tournaments in Brisbane and Sydney. The Australian Open starts on Monday.

“The first matches of the year are always tough, and I’m still not feeling my rhythm,” Kerber said. “I made too many mistakes. I was not feeling the ball.”

Kasatkina broke Kerber’s serve five times and registered her first win ever against a top five player.

“Difficult to explain because I beat No. 1 in the world and doesn’t happen every day,” the 19-year-old Russian said when asked about her emotions after the career-high win. “I think I get some confidence.”

She moved into a quarterfinal against sixth-seeded Johanna Konta, who beat Daria Gavrilova 6-1, 6-3.

Eugenie Bouchard continued her resurgent run heading into the season’s first major with a 6-4, 6-3 win over WTA Finals champion Dominika Cibulkova to reach the quarterfinals in Sydney.

Bouchard improved her career record to 4-1 against Cibulkova, who was ranked No. 5 and was voted the WTA’s comeback player of the year in 2016 after her title win at the season-ending championship. Bouchard had a breakout season in 2014, reaching the semifinals at the Australian Open and French Open before making the final at Wimbledon. But she has only gone past the fourth round at a major once since then and slipped to No. 46 at the end of last year.

She will play a quarterfinal against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who beat defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-5, 6-3.

Former No. 1-ranked Caroline Wozniacki beat Yulia Putintseva 6-0, 7-5 to move into a quarterfinal against Barbora Strycova, who ousted No. 9-seeded Roberta Vinci 6-2, 6-3. No. 2-ranked Agnieszka Radwanska had a 7-6 (1), 6-1 win over Christina McHale and will next play Chinese qualifier Duan Yingyang, who beat Coco Vandeweghe 6-3, 6-2 to make the quarterfinals.

In men’s first-round matches, Alex De Minaur beat Benoit Paire 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (1), Andrey Kuznetsov was leading 2-6, 6-1, 3-0 when No. 7-seeded Martin Klizan retired, and No. 6 Gilles Muller advanced over Alexandr Dolgopolov.

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