For the first time since her return to the tennis tour as a mother, Angelique Kerber competes in Germany. The former world number one suffers a clear defeat
Former Wimbledon champion Angelique Kerber has missed out on the hoped-for round of 16 in Stuttgart. In her first appearance at a German tennis tournament after her maternity leave, the 36-year-old clearly lost 2:6, 1:6 to Britain’s Emma Raducanu. With her exit, the highly competitive indoor clay court tournament will continue without German participation from the second round in the singles.
Kerber’s first set against the sensational winner of the 2021 US Open was more hard-fought than the result made it look. The Stuttgart winner from 2015 and 2016 came out aggressively and courageously against Raducanu (21), who had been out injured for months last year. However, she was unable to maintain the level. At 2:3, the left-hander lost three games in a row and conceded the first set.
The three-time Grand Slam tournament winner also lacked the consistency in the second set to at least make the result a little closer. In the end, Kerber had to accept her fourth first-round exit at her fifth tournament since returning to the tennis tour as a mother at the beginning of the year.
The Kiel native had recently been weakened by a cold. Kerber had reported that she had been “extremely unwell”. The former world number one did not play in the German women’s tennis team’s success in the Billie Jean King Cup in Brazil last weekend.
Siegemund and Maria also out
Before Kerber, Laura Siegemund was also eliminated in the first round after a long battle lasting more than three hours. The player from Metzingen (36) lost 3:6, 7:6 (7:4), 4:6 against Marta Kostjuk from Ukraine. As Tatjana Maria (36) from Bad Saulgau had already lost to Belgium’s Elise Mertens on Tuesday, all the Germans are out after the opening round.
