Angelique Kerber, WTA Tournament in Bad Homburg, Quarterfinals, Thursday, 23.06.2022
Will Angelique Kerber be able to defend her title in Bad Homburg? Germany’s best tennis player wants to get into her best form on grass before Wimbledon and has already celebrated two victories in front of her fans.
On Thursday, she will be aiming for a place in the semi-finals. And it will be against an old acquaintance, as the head-to-head comparison sees her 4:2.
Last year, the tournament in Bad Homburg was the door opener for finally rising performances again – and 2022? Angelique Kerber will still remember how surprisingly strong she performed here 365 days ago.
For two years she was completely out of form until the knot finally burst at home. The situation is not quite as tragic now, Kerber’s year 2022 is not bad, but it has not brought the desired results either.
After her title win in Strasbourg, the French Open was already over after the 3rd round. Afterwards, the 34-year-old took a little time out from the tournament schedule to prepare herself for the green grass in peace.
This seems to have worked, as she delivered two commanding performances in Bad Homburg. First she won 6-2, 6-2 against Anastasia Gasanova, then she followed it up with an almost identical 6-2, 6-3 win against Lucia Bronzetti.
Kerber gave her two opponents a total of six break chances, but managed to fend off all of them without exception. She won 78% of her first points and 82% of her second, and her service worked very well in the round of 16.
Now she is in the top eight and will meet an old acquaintance. Alize Cornet, only two years younger than Kerber and exactly the same size, has already played her six times.
The German, who also won the most recent encounter in Rome last year 6-2, 7-5, leads 4-2. Cornet’s best days are well over a decade ago, but the Frenchwoman is far from giving up.
In Bad Homburg she also celebrated two straight wins, but still had a little more trouble than Kerber. Her 6-2, 6-4 against Anna Kalinskaya was still free of difficulties, but she had to fight quite a bit in the round of 16.
Tatjana Maria held her own and in the end Cornet won 7-6, 6-4. She serves almost identically to Kerber, so both players know how good her service is.
Just a few days ago in Berlin, Cornet had lost outright to Kalinskaya, so the improvement in performance has come quickly. The woman, who has yet to reach a semi-final in 2022, has obviously recovered well from her injury-ravaged exit at the French Open.
My Cornet Kerber Tip
It was a year ago that I was able to celebrate the end of a long period of suffering when it came to Angelique Kerber right here in Bad Homburg. Since then, things have improved considerably, but there is still plenty of room for improvement. So far, however, she is showing her best side in the tournament.
Alize Cornet is a fighter who serves similarly well as Kerber. In my analysis, however, I realised that she has hardly achieved any results worth mentioning in 2022. Therefore, my tip for Thursday is as follows:
Kerber wins at over 16.5 games!
