By Adrianna Outlaw | Tuesday, January 9, 2018
January may belong to Germany.
Angelique Kerber continued her strong start to the season, surging past second-seeded Venus Williams, 5-7, 6-3, 6-1, into the Sydney International quarterfinals.
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The 29-year-old Kerber, who posted a 4-0 singles mark leading Germany to the Hopman Cup final last weekend, joins German Fed Cup teammate Julia Goerges in tearing through the opening week of the year.
Goerges knocked off Caroline Wozniacki, 6-4, 7-6 (4), in the Auckland final last weekend to claim her third consecutive title and 14th consecutive win dating back to last season.
In a clash of former world No. 1 players, Kerber struck cleanly bursting out to a 5-3 lead after 23 minutes.
Digging in, 2017 Australian Open finalist Williams denied a pair of set points, including smacking a forehand down the line on the second set point, to hold in the ninth game.
The stand sparked a run of four consecutive games as the 38-year-old American broke at love seizing a one-set lead on a Kerber deep double fault.
Kerber, who fought back from a set down to defeat Australian Open doubles champion Lucie Safarova in her opener, began working the angles beautifully and whipping her inside-out forehand effectively to craft revival.
A clever rainbow lob helped Kerber break for a 3-2 second-set lead and she never looked back.
Victimizing one of the game's most imposing net players with another lob, Kerber charged out to a 4-0 lead in the decider and closed in one hour, 52 minutes.
Though the Hopman Cup exhibition wins don't count on her official record, the 2016 Australian Open champion will draw confidence from the fact she's won all six matches she's played this season ahead of her Melbourne return.
Key Stat
Williams doubled Kerber’s double fault total (10 to 5), while the left-handed German protected serve with more diligence. Kerber won 71 percent of first-serve points compared to 64 percent for the fifth-ranked American.
Talking Point
“I think I start not bad, but then Venus was playing also good. I think every game was close. I had, like, now a lot of matches in the last few days, so I was just trying to going for it, trying to just playing my game, trying to doing this what I did good in the last few days.”—Angelique Kerber
Turning Point
Deadlocked at 2-all, 30-all in the second set, Kerber lofted a brilliant lob winner over the 6-foot-1 Grand Slam champion that helped her carve out the break. That master stroke was inspiring: Kerber won 10 of the last 12 games.
What’s Next?
A clash of former Top 10 players as the 22nd-ranked Kerber plays 26th-ranked Dominika Cibulkova in a renewal of a riveting rivalry. They have split 10 career meetings, including Cibulkova’s, 6-3, 6-4, victory over the then world No. 1 in the 2016 WTA Finals title match. This will be their third time squaring off in Sydney. Cibulkova won 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, in the 2013 semifinals; Kerber avenged that loss with a 7-6 (5), 7-5 triumph the next year.