Angelique Kerber Powers Through Madison Keys To Miami Open Semifinals - UBITENNIS

Angelique Kerber Powers Through Madison Keys To Miami Open Semifinals

The World No. 3 and the most recent grand slam champion, Angelique Kerber has defeated the American Madison Keys 6-3 6-2 in a Miami Open quarterfinal. Kerber finished the match in a light hour and 8 minutes. Her next opponent will be the Indian Wells champion Victoria Azarenka, who is gunning for the 'Sunshine Double'. It is now for sure that after her semifinal run, Angelique Kerber will go back to being the World No. 2,

By Jakub Bobro
2 Min Read
Angelique Kerber of Germany plays a match against Timea Babos of Hungary during Day 8 of the Miami Open presented by Itau at Crandon Park Tennis Center on March 28, 2016 in Key Biscayne, Florida.

Coming into this match, Kerber was a huge favorite. Despite not being on her best form in Indian Wells, she had good momentum coming into this match and the head-to-head was 3-1 in her favour. The players were fighting hard right from the start, and it was very noticeable that Kerber was going after Keys’ serve hard. It took 3 deuces for Keys to hold her serve and equal to 1-1. Keys kept her momentum and broke Kerber with a clean game, only to be broken back to 2-2. Kerber held with a clean game, and then came two long games, which yielded altogether 4 break points but no breaks. Kerber broke Keys’ serve one game later and then successfully took the first set. Keys was not too impressive on her serve today, when she won only 2 points out of 10 after a second serve and won only 48% of points on her serve overall.

Kerber had a rocket start to the second set, getting two breaks off of Keys and got a comfortable lead of 4-0, never losing more than two points in a game. Keys started to come back after, but she wasn’t able to break her opponent, so despite losing only one point in her last two service games, she still lost 2-6. Kerber was very strong on her serve in the second set, having 73% of serves in and the same percentage of service points won. Angelique Kerber will next face Victoria Azarenka for a spot in the final of Miami Open. Azarenka has the lead of 6-1 in their head-to-head, but Kerber won their last meeting earlier this year at the Australian Open quarterfinals. Kerber won 6-3 7-5 and later the whole tournament. This match will be played at 9:00 PM of local time (2:00 AM GMT).

Leave a comment