Concentrated and determined: Angelique Kerber confirmed her good first impression at the WTA tournament in Rome.
The 36-year-old three-time Grand Slam winner moved into the third round with a 6:3, 6:0 win against 17th-seeded Russian Weronika Kudermetowa.
Kerber had only lost one game in her first round match against Lauren Davis from the USA and again radiated more confidence in the first set against Kudermetowa than her mistaken opponent.
Early break decides
Kerber, who also wants to position herself for the French Open (from May 26th) in the Italian capital, then brought the game to an end after just 69 minutes after an early break in the second round. The next opponent of the former world number one is Alexandra Sasnowitsch or Yekaterina Alexandrowa.
In addition to Kerber, Laura Siegemund is still in the tournament, who won her first round match, which was canceled the day before, 2:6, 6:4, 6:4 against Maria Lourdes Carle from Argentina. She will now face Dajana Jastremska from Ukraine. Tatjana Maria, however, was eliminated. The player from Bad Saulgau lost to Darja Kassatkina in two sets (5:7, 1:6).
Koepfer continues with the men
Meanwhile, Dominik Koepfer successfully played his opening match at the ATP Masters in Rome. The 30-year-old from Furtwangen ultimately defeated local hero Andrea Vavassori 6:4, 6:3 and earned a duel with the American Frances Tiafoe.
Koepfer, who celebrated his first tour success on clay since Hamburg 2021, followed Yannick Hanfmann (Karlsruhe) into the second round, which Jan-Lennard Struff (Warstein) and Daniel Altmaier (Kempen) also want to reach on Thursday. Olympic champion Alexander Zverev (Hamburg) initially had a bye and will face Australian Aleksandar Vukic in his first duel in the “eternal city”.