Sunday 30 May 2021
French Open against No. 139
Kerber embarrasses himself in just 86 minutes
This was not a thing again! For Angelique Kerber, the French Open ended quickly as it was last year. In front of one of the Ukrainian qualifiers, Germany’s top seed showed a terrifying performance for a long time – and were knocked out after just 86 minutes.
As in the previous year, Angelique Kerber was eliminated in the first round of the French Open. The top seed lost in Paris on Sunday to the Ukrainian qualifiers Anhelina Kalinina 2: 6, 4: 6 and showed an indisputable performance for a long time. In 2020, Kerber was already failing initially after a very poor performance.
The number one in the world could not achieve anything against Kalinina, and without any self-confidence, the 33-year-old from Kiel made many simple mistakes. The one-sided match at Stade Roland Garros lasted only 86 minutes. Kerber will now focus on the grass season.
“Unfortunately, she was in very good shape and the handbrake was on again,” said Barbara Reitner, head of the women’s division at the German Tennis Federation, as an expert on Eurosport TV. “She has to stop that quickly now.”
The Kerber is surprisingly lukewarm
Kerber hadn’t found a rhythm from the start and had no attitude toward the game in sunny weather. The three-time Grand Slam champion slowed her program in an eerily half-hearted way. It looked as if Kerber wanted to be everywhere except for a tennis court in Paris. In the first set Kerber was at 0: 5, only after 24 minutes she won the first match. For a brief moment it looked as if Kerber was entering the game slowly, but after 34 minutes the Ukrainian won the first round.
In the second section, things got worse, Kerber’s view. The Schleswig-Holstein woman made minor mistakes every minute, Kalinina, ranked 139th in the world, had to do little more than keep the ball in play. Only when nerves started playing with the Ukrainian, Kerber was able to reduce it to 4: 5 and even had a break ball to make it 5: 5. But then it became very negative again, so Kalinina could use the second match point.