Adelaide International: Triple-Grand Slam champion Angelique Kerber retires as Belinda Bencic wins through
The Adelaide International has lost another seed after German star Angelique Kerber retired from her second round match, but world No.7 Belinda Bencic had no such drama.
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The first chill in the air at the 2020 Adelaide International arrived around the time of the first set tie-break which turned what might have been an upset into a routine victory... Eventually.
An engaging all-European affair between Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic and Germany’s Julia Goerges suddenly, and surprisingly, flipped and went the way of the Swiss 22-year-old.
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It was against the run of play, the veteran Goerges had been ahead all set but without taking control and, in the end, she paid for it, Bencic the winner 7-6 (6), 7-6 (4) in an hour and 49 minutes.
She will now face impressive American Danielle Collins — they have not met before — on the sunken show court on Thursday afternoon for a spot in the last four.
A storming 2019 has taken Bencic from No.55 in the rankings up to No.7 and while the steely-eyed Goerges sits 31 places below, the match was never a disparity.
Goerges has been there, done it, a near-$10 million banked in career prize money. She is about consistency, a hard player with all the strokes yet lacking that one killer punch, although she did serve 12 aces to just three double faults. When she arrives in Melbourne for the Australian Open, she will be playing her 48th consecutive major.
Bencic, by contrast, began the weaker player, chuntering away to herself a little, but cutting out her errors proved the difference. While Goerges is the more aggressive, stylish player, she is also the more error prone, hitting deep and wide when a little more caution would have served her well.
At set point against her in the tie-break Goerges hit a deep forehand, Bencic successfully scrambling it back with a lob. Goerges went for it again, Bencic this time throwing up another lob, suspecting a mistake might follow — which it did — forcing a smash wide by Goerges, who never really recovered.
The second set followed suit, quality sound, but thrills absent, although Bencic, at 5-3 ahead, let Goerges back into the match unnecessarily, losing her serve to go to a second tie-break.
Bencic doesn’t look a potential major winner any time soon, yet she rallied and got the job done in the end.
That alone says a lot.
KERBER FORCED OUT
German star Angelique Kerber is out of the Adelaide International after injury forced her to retire in the second set of her second round clash against Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska at Memorial Drive on Wednesday.
After dropping the first set 3-6, the former world No. 1 and three-times Grand Slam champion called a premature end to the match when trailing 0-2 in the second with what appeared a back issue.
Kerber, the ninth seed, was coming off a dominant first round triumph over China’s Qiang Wang, and she took that form into her second contest when she broke Yastremska in the first game.
But her 24th ranked opponent refused to be distracted by the early setback and took the challenge to Kerber, her confidence rising with each game.
Both players called for their coaches at the end of the first set.
There were just two more games, however, before Kerber called for the physio, then conceded the match to allow Yastremska to advance to the quarter-finals.
Yastremska will now face Croatian Donna Vekic, who fought back from a set down to conquer Maria Sakkari 2-6, 7-5, 6-1.
Originally published as Adelaide International: Triple-Grand Slam champion Angelique Kerber retires as Belinda Bencic wins through