Porsche Tennis Grand Prix: Emma Raducanu too strong for Kerber

Emma Raducanu won the battle between Porsche brand ambassadors against Angelique Kerber. He won 6:2, 6:1 against the two-time winner of Stuttgart on Wednesday evening.

The 21-year-old Brit found her way into the match well from the start and got a break straight away – Kerber leveled, but Raducanu took her place again and broke away.

In the second round of the same game, Kerber celebrated strongly the score 1-1, but stopped playing again – to null. Raducanu dominated the game, acting strongly but in a controlled manner. With a break to 4: 1 the match was decided. “It is difficult to play against Angie, she has made a lot of history,” praised Raducanu. “I’m happy to win.”

Raducanu continues his good start to the season. He was on hiatus from the 2023 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix until the beginning of 2024, underwent surgery on his wrists and ankles and is now finally playing pain-free. “The most difficult thing is fitness,” said Raducanu about the big challenge of returning after a long time. And also match practice. “Stress and nerves also affect the muscles” – you can’t replicate that in training.

Her other opponent in Stuttgart: 19-year-old Czech Linda Noskova, who easily won against Jelena Ostapenko on Tuesday.

Coco Gauff and the school “Winning the bad”.

The fact that Raducanu and Kerber could only start at 9 pm – instead of 6:30 pm as planned – was also due to the third singles of the day, by US Open winner Coco Gauff.

The 20-year-old had to play against compatriot Sachia Vickery (WTA No. 134), who had entered the main draw through qualifying. And here it was about to end: in the end it was 6:3, 4:6 and 7:5 for the world number three, after about two and a half hours of play and a match with a total of 15. (!) breaks. Gauff contributed 15 doubles.

But Vickery also played well and had a good chance for a surprise victory at 4:2 in the third set. “He returned a lot of balls, I had to be patient – but I became very defensive,” said Gauff. Finally he played again more aggressively – successfully.

In general, it is a victory from the “Winning Ugly” school of Coach Brad Gilbert, who, however, is not in Stuttgart and will join Team Coco again in Madrid. “You know Brad, sometimes a break isn’t a bad thing,” joked Gauff about the man who was also nicknamed “CNN” during the game because he was constantly chatting.

Gauff will face the winner of the match between Qinwen Zheng and Marta Kostyuk on Friday.

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Angelique Kerber

Cori Gauff

Raducano Emma