Angelique Kerber clinched the first win for Germany at the Hopman Cup Sunday afternoon. The world number two held her own game well against Spain’s Garbine Muguruza to win 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 on centre court at the RAC Arena.
The two met for the first time since Wimbledon 2017 when the Spaniard went on to win it herself. Adding a second slam. Kerber followed the success up a year later to add a third to her career. This marked the ninth time they’ve faced off and a great way to heat up the competition. Muguruza has five match wins in a row against the German who would be playing for her country against the heart of Spain. “I’m looking forward to it,” Muguruza said. “It’s one of those matches that you train hard to compete and to fight and have a good match against the best.” Kerber won every match in Hopman last season and despite the challenge would do everything to keep her streak in Perth alive.
The 25-year-old served to begin the match but had Kerber in tow with her after each point. The German had a breakpoint at hand but didn’t secure the victory early. Instead, they extended the opening game to three breaks with Muguruza holding. Kerber found herself in the same situation on serve with the Spaniard fighting for control. The two fought through nine minutes with the world number two capturing her first service hold.
Kerber broke the Spaniard creating a lead after three gaining two points to begin a rush to victory. The 30-year-old added another three game wins with her angled winners that made it a tough time for Muguruza. It wasn’t until the seventh game that the world number 18 managed to get another victory for herself. The damage had been done and tough to overcome as Kerber served up three set points in the eighth before getting it on a long forehand landing wide. Germany had its first lead after 40 minutes with Kerber in fine form.
The second set was Muguruza’s chance to make up for the early mistakes and started things with a great serve to love. Kerber stayed on pace to hold in the second and stayed in tow with the Spaniard through five. There was a moment in the sixth when Kerber put the pressure on Muguruza to falter but a key save helped her hold on. She got herself into position in the eighth with a break on the German to lead 5-3. The 25-year-old coasted to level the playing field with Kerber blanked in the ninth ending the set in 39 minutes.
With one to go, both players went for it all as one of them would set the bar for their country to carry momentum along in the competition. Things were looking good for Kerber after a hold in the second where she put things into a tactical gear to get the best of Muguruza. It turned into a key moment in the set where the German began to bring the drop shot that caught the 25-year-old off guard. Despite her attempts to react, the returns from the Spaniard fell wide to give her opponent another small margin.
Muguruza had a shot to turn the tables around with a break chance against Kerber. Unfortunately, the returns didn’t come easy as Kerber fired the ball on the rallies pushing the Spaniard to the baseline where her responses showed signs of a struggle. She forced deuce with Kerber but couldn’t get the right shot in to get another break chance. Kerber was in a great position playing at 4-1 with Muguruza in danger of putting Spain in a hole. She recovered on serve holding off Kerber but the margin weighed heavily in favor of Germany.
The 30-year-old set herself up for a victory holding in the seventh with just one more win that came on the serve of Muguruza who was feeling the pressure in the late stages of the set. She pulled together a great service game with many coming at the net to clinch another win to her belt. It was up to Kerber to get it done on serve in the ninth and did so even with Muguruza gaining two points in the process. It came down to a final return from the Spaniard which landed just long of the corner baseline to complete the win in two hours and three minutes.
I went out there and tried to play my good tennis and be aggressive,” Kerber said after the match. “It’s a great feeling to start a new season here.”
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