Melbourne. Angelique Kerber was eliminated in the quarter-finals of her preparatory tournament for the Australian Open in Melbourne. The former number one in the tennis world lost 4: 6, 2: 6 in the Grampians Trophy against the Greek Maria Sakkari on Saturday.
The 33-year-old from Kiel already led 4: 1 in the first set. But then Sakkari, number 22 in the world rankings three places ahead of Kerber, won nine games in a row. After 73 minutes, the 25-year-old Greek prevailed.
“I started well, felt good. But there is still a difference between training and a match,” said Kerber. Nevertheless, the 2016 Melbourne winner drew a positive conclusion. “The goal was to play a few matches before the Australian Open. I did that, and that’s good, especially after being in my hotel room for two weeks,” she said.
Because of the corona pandemic, several tournaments were scheduled in Melbourne Park for the week before the start of the Australian Open to give the players time to prepare. The Australian Open had been postponed by three weeks.
Like many other professionals, Kerber recently had to spend two weeks in strict quarantine because there was a positive Corona case on her flight to Australia. Because of a hotel employee who tested positive for the virus, all games in Melbourne were canceled on Thursday. The Australian Open should start on Monday as planned. Kerber, who won the Grand Slam tournament in 2016, starts against Bernarda Pera from the USA, number 63 in the world rankings.
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