Kerber survives scare, Muguruza crashes at Wuhan Open

WUHAN, China: Angelique Kerber survived a scare in her first match as world number one while French Open champion Garbine Muguruza crashed out in Wuhan on Tuesday.

The US and Australian Open champion, who had a bye in the first round, made a convincing start before missing two set points and allowing Kristina Mladenovic to take the first set in a tie break.

But the German then swept through the rest of the match, winning 6-7 (4/7), 6-1, 6- 4 to set up a third- round meeting with two- time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova.

“I was trying to find my rhythm because I was not playing my best in the first set,” top seed Kerber said after the match.

Meanwhile, Muguruza just couldn’t master former world number one Jelena Jankovic, pushing her to a tie break in the second set but still coming up short at 6- 4, 7- 6 (7/2).

“I felt like I was in control of the match, but the last shot was not there. I made maybe too many mistakes against Jankovic,” she told reporters.

The Spaniard bagged her first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros this year and rose to a careerhigh ranking of two, but the early round loss at Wuhan puts her qualification for the eightplayer WTA Finals in Singapore in doubt.

Muguruza was the second seeded casualty of the day after last year’s US Open finalist Roberta Vinci fell to Yaroslava Shvedova 7-5, 6-2 – her second defeat at the hands of the Kazakh this year.

Briton Johanna Konta had a tough battle to oust home crowd favourite Zhang Shuai in two sets, 6- 3, 6- 3, while world number four Agnieszka Radwanska romped into the third round when she downed Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova.

Radwanska will next meet an in- form Caroline Wozniacki, who defeated qualifier Kateraina Siniakova 6- 4, 6- 4 on Tuesday, in the third round of the $ 2.6 million hardcourt event. — AFP