Emma Raducanu won the duel between the Porsche brand ambassadors against Angelique Kerber. She won 6:2, 6:1 against the two-time Stuttgart winner late on Wednesday evening.
by Florian Goosman from Stuttgart
last edited: April 17, 2024, 10:38 p.m
© Porsche
Emma Raducanu
The 21-year-old Brit found her way into the match better right at the beginning and managed a break straight away – Kerber equalized, but Raducanu took her serve again and pulled away.
In the second round of the same game, Kerber energetically celebrated the 1-1 equalizer, but then gave up her serve again – to nil. Raducanu dominated the game, acting powerfully but in a controlled manner. With the break to 4:1 the match was decided. “It’s hard to play against Angie, she has written so much history,” praised Raducanu. “I’m just happy to have won.”
Raducanu continues her promising start to the season. She had been on break since her exit from the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix 2023 until the start of 2024, had surgery on both wrists and an ankle and is now finally playing pain-free. “The hardest thing is fitness,” said Raducanu about the biggest challenge in returning after such a long time. And also match practice. “Stress and nerves also affect the muscles” – you can’t simulate that in training.
Her next opponent in Stuttgart: the 19-year-old Czech Linda Noskova, who won easily against Jelena Ostapenko on Tuesday.
Coco Gauff and the “Winning ugly” school
The fact that Raducanu and Kerber were only able to start at 9 p.m. – instead of 6:30 p.m. as planned – was also due to the third three-set singles of the day, that of US Open winner Coco Gauff.
The 20-year-old had to play against compatriot Sachia Vickery (WTA No. 134), who had made it into the main draw through qualification. And here it was almost on the verge of elimination: in the end it was 6:3, 4:6 and 7:5 for the world number three, after almost two and a half hours of play and a match with a total of 15 (!) breaks. Gauff contributed with 15 double faults.
But Vickery also played well and had a good chance of a surprise victory at 4:2 in the third set. “She brought back a lot of balls, I had to be patient – but then I became too defensive,” said Gauff. In the end she played a little more aggressively again – with success.
Overall, it’s a win from Coach Brad Gilbert’s “Winning Ugly” school, who, however, is not in Stuttgart and will only 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 called “CNN” during his playing days because he was constantly chattering.
Gauff will face the winner of the game between Qinwen Zheng and Marta Kostyuk on Friday.
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2024-04-17 20:36:00
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