KERBER CRASHES
Former World No.1 is out in opening round of WTA Elite tourney
Zhuhai (China), Oct. 31: Former world number one Angelique Kerber suffered defeat at the hands of Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on the first day of the WTA Elite Trophy on Tuesday, a rough start for the German at the season-ending tournament.
Pavlyuchenkova, seeded fourth, beat 29-year-old Kerber 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 in one hour and 54 minutes at the Zhuhai Hengqin International Tennis Centre in southern China.
Eighth seed Kerber, who clinched both the Australian and US Open titles last year, still has a chance to qualify for the semis because of the round-robin format of the tournament.
Having struggled to find her feet in the first set, down 4-1 after the first five games, she managed to redeem herself in the second, gallantly holding serve in the third game and snatching a key break in game six before levelling the match.
The two traded service breaks at the start of the third set but it wasn’t long before the Russian had Kerber on the run.
Earlier in the week the German, who has dropped from world number one in January to 19th.
America’s Coco Vandeweghe earlier beat her Chinese wild card opponent. The second seed downed China’s number one player Peng Shuai 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
The Elite Trophy features 12 players placed nine and below in rankings, while those ranked eight and above made up the field for the WTA Finals in Singapore which ended Sunday. —