The best female tennis players in the world are back in Indian Wells – and with them a German who has the (almost) best memories of the most recent edition of this Masters. After a year’s compulsory break, the winner will be sought in 2021.
In 2019, Angelique Kerber reached the final, but lost in three sets to Bianca Andreescu. Will she be one of the favourites for the title this time as well? After all, she’s been in really good form for a few months now!
Born in Kiel, Germany, Angelique Kerber is seeded tenth in Indian Wells, which means she will have a walk-through before the real thing begins. The 33-year-old has fought her way back to 15th place in the world rankings.
She won the Bad Homburg Open, reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon a little later and lost narrowly to world number one Ashleigh Barty. The exact same thing happened to her in Cincinnati.
At the US Open, Kerber defeated Sloane Stephens, but was eliminated in the round of 16 by the eventual finalist Leyla Fernandez. Actually a stable series, had it not been for the tournament in Ostrava.
A few weeks ago, Kerber showed that she might not be so stable after all. She lost directly in round 1 against Jill Teichmann 2-6, 3-6 She has to put this experience out of her mind quickly and pick up where she left off in New York
She already reached the semi-finals in Indian Wells in 2012 and 2013, so she has known how to play successful tennis here for many years. She was particularly successful, I mentioned it at the beginning, in 2019.
Two years ago, she also started with a walk-through, easily beat Yulia Putintseva in the 1st round. Such a victory would also give her confidence this Saturday, she knows her opponent well.
She has already faced Katerina Siniakova six times, five times she has come out on top This year, the duel has already taken place twice. In the final in Bad Homburg, the German did not show any weakness, winning clearly 6-3, 6-2
The Czech wants to perform much better this time than last time. In contrast to Kerber, the 25-year-old had to play in the first round and met a competitor whose name every tennis fan knows all too well: Kim Clijsters!
The Belgian made her comeback on the big stage, but was not strong enough for Siniakoa. 6-1, 2-6, 6-2, only the second set was lost by the favourite. Incidentally, she did the same to Kerber a few weeks ago.
She also failed right at the start in Ostrava, namely in three sets against her compatriot Tereza Martincova. At the US Open, she was eliminated after the second round, but Siniakova also faced a very tough opponent in Maria Sakkari.
The Czech has not been consistent in recent months. Sometimes she beat top players like Garbine Mugurza, then she failed again against players who were clearly inferior.
Nevertheless, she is by no means without a chance against the higher-ranked Angelique Kerber this Saturday. This is also how the bookmakers see the pairing, as the odds between the two ladies are only around 0.60. In this respect, both singles bets pay off well.
Does my Kerber Siniakova tip now focus very much on the recent tournament in Ostrava? Here, both players were not in form and dropped out of the tournament in the first round. This was particularly surprising for the German.
The player from Kiel has actually been playing very strong tennis again for about five months, but she took a break from that in Ostrava. However, with Siniakova showing weaker results overall and having already lost twice to Kerber in 2021, I’m still going with the favourite.
After all, Kerber knows how to go far in Indian Wells, not for nothing did she reach the final here two years ago. But she will need to improve her performance to get through this second round unscathed.
