Angelique Kerber played her first match as a mother, and while she fought valiantly, it was a losing effort in the end.
Talks about Kerber returning to tennis grew over the previous months, and eventually, we got confirmation that she would be back in 2024. The first stop in her schedule was the United Cup, where she teamed up with Zverev to form a pretty formidable team that could do some damage.
Well, today she played her first match back. It was against the always tricky Jasmine Paolini, whose matches tend to look like a roller coaster. That was the case this time around, as the opening set was anything but a calm set of tennis.
The players broke each other six times total, with the Italian coming out on top 6-4. Most of that happened at the of the set as both struggled to win points on their serve. The German particularly struggled because the Italian was so aggressive while returning.
The second set was a bit more stable for Kerber, but some of the same problems persisted. The serve was the glaring issue because she simply could not handle the aggressive nature of the Italian. Paolini took a 3-1 lead, then lost it and then was treated for a hamstring injury.
She forfeited two games to receive the treatment, so Kerber found herself up 5-3 out of nowhere with a golden chance to win the set. Unfortunately, she didn't as she couldn't handle the power of Paolini once more.
Despite having two set points, the German would lose the next two games to make it 5-5 and would then get completely smashed in the next two to lose the match. It was a decent effort from Kerber, but just not good enough. The final score was 6-4, 7-5 for Paolini.
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