By Alberto Amalfi | Thursday, April 26, 2018
On a day of retirements and champion departures, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova moved forward in Stuttgart.
Pavlyuchenkova snatched the opening set, 7-5, against Garbiñe Muguruza when the second-seeded Spaniard retired from their Stuttgart match with a lower back injury.
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Two-time Grand Slam champion Muguruza was the third straight player to retire from a center court match at the Porsche Arena today.
Anett Kontaveit powered to a 6-0, 2-0 lead over Angelique Kerber when the former world No. 1 retired with a right thigh injury.
"I was feeling it a lot in the warm-up," Kerber told the media in Stuttgart. "It started a few days ago, but this morning, I was feeling it more and more. I was trying everything to go out there.
"I'm here in Stuttgart, my home tournament, so I was trying everything, thinking I could play for the fans."
It was a commanding performance from Kontaveit, who denied two match points defeating 2017 finalist Kristina Mladenovic yesterday and bounced back with a impressive performance today.
While Kerber's movement appeared compromised, Kontaveit was too busy hammering winners to take much notice.
Kontaveit clubbed a forehand down the line and cranked a serve winner as she saved a break point extending her lead to 4-0 and silencing German fans.
Reading the wide serve, Kontaveit stepped to her left and launched a rocket backhand return winner breaking at love in the fifth game.
Seeking reprieve from the onslaught, Kerber left the court for a medical timeout while Kontaveit leaned back in her court-side seat.
Serving for the set, Kontaveit erased break point with her first ace. The Estonian couldn't convert on two match points then saw Kerber crack a forehand down the line to save a third set point.
On her fourth set point, Kerber scattered a diagonal forehand wide.
Kontaveit required just a half hour steamrolling through a shutout set slamming twice as many winners (10 to 4) as the two-time champion.
"She wasn't 100 percent, but I'm happy to be in the quarterfinals," Kontaveit said. "It's not the way I wanted to win today, but I'm still happy to be through."
The 31st-ranked Estonian, who arrived in Stuttgart mired in a four-match losing streak, will take on Pavlyuchenkova for a spot in the final four.
Reigning Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko launched her clay-court campaign with a bang.
Ostapenko overwhelmed Zarina Diyas, 6-3, 6-0, in her first clay match of the season.
"First matches are always tough," Ostapenko said. "I thought I played well for the first round and I'm feeling great to be back on clay. I'm really enjoying it, especially here, it's very fast and fits my game well, so hopefully I can do well."
Next up for Ostapenko is a quarterfinal with former No. 1 Karolina Pliskova.
The fifth-seeded Czech crashed 15 aces squeezing out a 7-6 (4), 6-3 victory over 193rd-ranked Russian Veronika Kudermetova.
In a battle of wild cards, CoCo Vandeweghe smacked seven aces defeating defending champion Laura Siegemund, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3. The 16th-ranked Vandeweghe evened her 2018 record at 4-4.
Vandeweghe will play world No. 1 Simona Halep in tomorrow's opening quarterfinal. Halep thrashed Vandeweghe, 6-1, 6-1, in the 2017 Madrid quarterfinals.