Kerber facing another grilling
ANGELIQUE KERBER endured a sporting grilling before reaching the fourth round, where she will meet Garbine Muguruza, who breezed through and then spoke about grilling... steaks.
Germany’s world No1 Kerber has had a woeful season compared to 2016 when she won two Grand Slams. She has won just 24 matches since January and needed to come from behind to beat America’s Shelby Rogers 4-6, 7-6, 6-4.
World No15 Muguruza, meanwhile, took only 70 minutes to brush aside Sorana Cirstea, of Romania, 6-2, 6-2. She has met Kerber seven times before. Kerber won the first three and Muguruza the last four including their only meeting on grass, here two years ago. Both have been runners-up to Serena Williams at Wimbledon.
Kerber appears to have been hampered by her recent achievements, admitting that her top ranking has brought ‘much more expectation, much more pressure’.
Muguruza believes ‘the exciting part comes now’. She even managed to make fun of a minor fire alarm incident a few days ago.
‘We were doing, like, nice steaks [at my rented house]. I did a lot of steaks.
‘There was so much smoke the fire alarm went off. It was like this for 20 minutes.
‘I’m like, are the fire brigade going to come just because [I’m cooking] steak?’
Kerber was almost well done by Rogers, the world No70 who led by a set and break thanks to her ground strokes from the baseline. But she hung on to turn things around.
Kerber was asked afterwards if this win might be a turning point for her season.
‘Maybe,’ she replied. ‘It was a really important win for me, especially because it was an up-and-down match, and I was down 2-4 in the second set.’
Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska, another losing finalist here against Williams, also needed three sets to reach the fourth round, beating Timea Bacsinszky.