Our tennis writer previews two selected matches from the Round of 16 at the Stuttgart Open.
Angelique Kerber 3/10 | Anett Kontaveit 9/4
Aiming to win her third Porsche Tennis Grand Prix title, the metronomic Kerber looks in excellent touch this week, having already disposed of fellow two-time Grand Slam Champion Petra Kvitova – where she avenged that Fed Cup defeat from last week. Kerber has had a solid comeback year, without completing the job. Kerber suffered heartbreak in the Aussie Open semi’s before another semi-final appearance in Dubai. She also had back-to-back quarterfinal finishes in the ‘Sunshine Double’. But she has inexplicably gone on to emphatically lose matches in the closing stages of events, clearly showing slight ring-rust in that quest to reclaim her optimum form.
Estonian Kontaveit is quite an enigmatic figure on that, and that impression has only been exacerbated by her sensational victory over Kristina Mlandenovic here. That broke a streak of four consecutive losses leading up to that match. The last person she beat prior to this was Sam Stosur in Dubai. Her only real claim to fame this year was a fairly heroic run to the final 16 in Melbourne, where she beat Jelena Ostapenko en route. The fact that she accounted for the demise of last year’s finalist Mlandenovic certainly adds some spice to proceedings.
The Estonian actually leads the head-to-head with Kerber 1-0, having easily dispatched of the German at last year’s Rome Masters-also on clay. Kerber may well advance here, but it may well be worth a bet on the mysterious Estonian. She comfortably beat Kerber on clay last season, and Kerber has had a habit of disappearing just as she seems to be building up a head of steam.
Elina Svitolina 7/20 | Marketa Vondrousova 37/20
Third seed Svitolina has had an interesting campaign thus far, with that brilliant win in Dubai really saving her season from the doldrums of mediocrity. She was brilliant there, excelling on her preferred hard-courts. She managed to beat Kerber, Kasatkina and Osaka en route to that title. She also reached the quarterfinals in Melbourne and Miami, but has generally struggled for consistency. And she hasn’t really shown much of a propensity for the idiosyncrasies of clay-court tennis.
Her opponent is 18 year-old Czech upstart Marketa Vondrousova, yet another player on that seemingly endless conveyor belt of talent called the Czech Republic. She already has one WTA title to her name and has already picked up quite the scalp in this tournament, having disposed of home favourite Julia Goerges already. She had a decent time in America, reaching the final 16 in Indian Wells, where she accounted for Johanna Konta in the process.
Svitolina leads the head-to-head between the two players 1-0, with a comfortable 6-2, 6-4 victory in Doha this year. Well I can possibly envisage a Kerber defeat in the previous match, I can’t see anything other than a Svitolina win here.
