Early play on Saturday in Indian Wells saw British twenty-fifth seed Johanna Konta continue her excellent year by defeating Madison Brengle, but second seed Angelique Kerber was shocked by Denisa Allertova in the second round of the Indian Wells tournament.
2016 Australian Open finalist Kerber was unusually unable to stay consistent against the unfavoured Allertova but the player ranked sixty-two places below her opponent was able to edge the World No.2 by breaking twice in each set. Kerber was able to retrieve one break in each set, but had little time to break when Allertova earned breaks later in both sets.
Allertova made more first serves, and won more points on both first and second serve to put Kerber under consistent pressure. Allertova managed to win 62% of second serve points against Kerber in the second set, and though Kerber won the same percentage against Allertova, she failed to stay as strong on her first serve. It marks Kerber’s second straight defeat on the WTA tour since her run to the Australian Open final, winning that title against Serena Williams. She had lost to Saisai Zheng in the second round of Doha having received a bye in the first round.
The win for Allertova offers Britain’s Johanna Konta the opportunity to reach the fourth round. Konta was Kerber’s schedules third round opponent, and the German’s defeat hands both Konta and Allertova an opportunity.
Konta ensured that she will play Allertova by clinically defeating the United States’ Madison Brengle 6-4, 6-0. Konta won a close first set, but raced away with the second, finishing the match in a little over one hour. Brengle had won all three previous meetings with Konta, but the 2016 Australian Open semi-finalist put the unfavourable head-to-head behind her in empathic fashion.
Ana Ivanovic and Karolina Pliskova are also in the section with Konta and Allertova with both due to play their respective opponents later in the day.
