Maria Sharapova could not stop the high quality of Angelique Kerber at the Australian Open Saturday night. The German dominated from start to finish finding ways of quenching the talents of the Russian superstar to win in straight sets 6-1, 6-3 on Rod Laver Arena at Melbourne Park.
The match pitted two former number ones looking to climb back into position to get it. The 2016 champion of the tournament went against the 2008 champion in what was their eighth meeting. Sharapova held the series lead with their last match taking place almost three years in Stuttgart where they felt comfortable. With the heat being an uncomfortable factor, the superstars of the sport would rely on their talents to outduel one another. Kerber hasn’t dropped a set in the tournament and carried a five-match streak of doing so. Sharapova was fortunate to get through her Latvian nemesis two days ago leading up to a critical matchup with both trying to gain their place back in the sun.
Kerber gained a comfortable two game leading adding a little aggression to her shots that got Sharapova to put too much on her returns in the rallies. The Russian found it difficult with the German making strong responses near the net that became part of her strategy to beating the former world number one. On her quest to hold in the third, Sharapova fought on deuce through three breaks to achieve the AD point and get on the board before it got too late to respond.
It continued to be a very tough fight for the unseeded superstar as Kerber dictated her serve well, following it up with two break points to open a three-game lead on Sharapova. The German hadn’t lost a chance to win on the first serve while the 30-year-old managed to win 25 percent from hers through five decisions. It was the key to Kerber dominating the match as she took things to a hilt holding 5-1 to the world number 47 with the set in her grasp.
The pressure was too great for Sharapova who went down 0-40 handing Kerber a 1-0 match lead after 29 minutes. Kerber amazingly had just two errors through the seven games that made her double fault seem like microscopic mistakes. The 11 unforced errors for the Russian were absolutely noticed as she was on the brink of disaster.
Kerber once again took point and broke Sharapova to take a 2-0 lead in the second set destined to take out the threat. In response to her seven-game winning streak, she put an end to that with a break of the German in the third hoping to get dug in for more victories. She added another to consolidate the break giving her confidence of making this her set to come back in. Kerber held serve in the fifth showing her strength but she allowed Sharapova breathing room to formulate what was becoming a very strong service game that kept her in tow after the sixth game.
The world number 14 had enough of being in a deadlock with Sharapova knowing where that would get her if she continued at the pace. In response going into the seventh, Kerber put all the pressure on the Russian to falter and give up points. She made it 5-3 after a break of Sharapova led to her serving near perfect having gained triple match point. After giving up one, it ended with a ball wide on Sharapova’s return that brought an end to the night in a huge victory that took one hour and four minutes to accomplish.
“I knew before the match that it would be a tough one,” Kerber said to Renae Stubbs during the on court interview. “Maria’s a champion. She’s play so good the last few weeks so I was trying to play my game and am so happy to be playing in 2018 than 2017.” When asked what the difference was between her game back then and now, the 29 year old had the right answer to explain her journey. “I learned a lot from the last 8-24 months and I had a great 2016 and last year was a little bit tough but everyone that knows me they know that I never give up and always come back.”
She’ll try and continue that as she’ll face the winner between Su-Wei Hsieh and Agnieszka Radwanska on Sunday.
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