Kerber continues to be devastating and applies a new “tire”

Rome Italy) – With another big victory, German Angelique Kerber is qualified for the third round of the WTA 1000 in Rome. This Thursday, the former number 1 in the world and current 331st ranked authoritatively beat the Russian Veronika Kudermetova, 25th in the ranking and 17th seed in the tournament, by the score of 6/3 and 6/0 in 1h09 of the match.

This was the second “tire” applied by Kerber in the competition, as in her debut she had beaten the North American Lauren Davis with scores of 6/1 and 6/0, last Tuesday. Her next challenge will be against Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich, who was also unaware of Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova and triumphed 6/0 and 6/1 in just 59 minutes.

It will be the fourth duel between Kerber and Sasnovich, with two victories for the German. After winning Wimbledon three years ago in a comeback, she also prevailed in three sets on clay in Strasbourg in 2022. A few days later, the Belarusian got revenge at Roland Garros, winning in straight sets.

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At 36 years old, Kerber is competing in the Rome tournament for the 11th time, with her best results being the 2012 semifinal and the 2018 quarterfinals. Her last participation was in 2022, when she fell on her debut to North American Coco Gauff.

Svitolina and Garcia will face Italians, Rybakina faces Romanian

Seeded 16th and 22nd, respectively, Ukrainian Elina Svitolina and Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia met their first opponents at Foro Italico this Thursday, and both will face local tennis players. Svitolina will face off against guest Sara Errani, who overcame North American Amanda Anisimova, scoring 4/6, 6/2 and 6/1. Garcia will duel with Elisabetta Cocciaretto, who finally finished the match that started yesterday and was stopped by rain, eliminating Mexican Renata Zarazua, coming from quali, by 4/6, 7/5 and 6/3.

Three other games affected on Wednesday also only resumed today. While the Spanish Sara Sorribes beat the Argentine Nadia Podoroska by 6/4 and 6/3, her compatriot Rebeka Masarova beat the Romanian Irina Begu with partials of 7/5, 3/6 and 6/4. Sorribes will face Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the second round and Begu will challenge Kazakh Elena Rybakina, current champion of the tournament and number 4 in the women’s ranking. German Laura Siegemund beat Argentine Maria Lourdes Carlé by 2/6, 6/4 and 6/4 and will cross with Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska, ranked 32nd.

More results of the day

Runner-up at the Australian Open in January and seeded 7th, Chinese Qinwen Zheng made her debut in the competition and did very well. She needed 1h14 to apply 6/2 and 6/0 to the American Shelby Rogers. Her next challenge will be against Czech Linda Noskova, 29th main entrant, who beat local guest Lucrezia Stefanini 6/3 and 7/6 (7-1).

Another eliminated host was Federica Di Sarra, who couldn’t resist the French qualifier Varvara Gracheva, falling by the score of 6/1 and 6/3. Gracheva will be the first opponent of the Greek Maria Sakkari, the fifth biggest favorite of the tournament. In the Russian duel of the day, Diana Shnaider, ranked 62nd, surprised Liudmila Samsonova, ranked 17th, also winning by 6/1 and 6/3. She is now waiting for the winner of the match between North American Emma Navarro and Spanish Paula Badosa.

In turn, Slovakian Rebecca Sramkova, who came from the qualifiers, was yet another to defeat a local tennis player, beating Giorgia Pedone 6/4 and 6/1. She now faces the British Katie Boulter, 26th pre-classified. Completing the list of games already completed, Russian Anastasia Potapova got past Chinese Xiyu Wang with a score of 6/1 and 7/5 and will face Latvian Jelena Ostapenko, ninth main favorite, just as Danish Clara Tauson eliminated Australian Daria Saville by 6/2 and 6/3 and will face Russian Anna Kalinskaya, 23rd pre-registered.