Angelique Kerber plays in Berlin: Get up to speed for Wimbledon – Sports Mix

Big Tennis in Berlin!

The new women’s tennis tournament bet1OPEN starts on Monday on the grass at the Steffi-Graf-Stadion in Berlin. Draft horse: Germany’s No. 1, Angelique Kerber (33). The Kiel lady got pretty interesting in the first round.

Keelerin has to play against Japanese Misaki Doi (30). She also played against qualifiers at the start of the Australian Open 2016. The Asian also had a match point against Kerber, which he contested. In the end, the German won his first of three Grand Slam tournaments to date.

But even good signs or superstitions are nothing to a lawn expert. Kerber: “I got used to rituals. This distracted me a lot. I just want to focus on the respective match. But it is true that many players go through their rituals.”

From a sporting standpoint, Kerber wants to get back on track in Berlin. In the last three Grand Slam tournaments, she was eliminated in the first round itself. “After finishing in Paris, it took me a few days to come to terms with it. Now I look forward to my favorite surface grass,” said the former No. 1 in the world.

In the second round, by the way, a duel with Andrea Petkovi (33) of Darmstadt provided that he defeated former world number one Viktoria Asrenka (31). Kerber needs a lot of match practice after a weak tournament over the past few weeks before moving on to Wimbledon.

So she came to Berlin a few days ago. “I have trained well here and I am looking forward to the tournament. I’ve known this feature from 13 years ago, when it was still played on clay. In the last edition of the German Open 2008, she suffered an injury in the first round against Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland).

Kerber: “I fell and broke my arm. I would think more about a few years ago. I played my first professional tournament here.” She will next play for the first time on June 21. The next lawn tournament will be in Bad Homburg, with him as ambassador and, after his career, perhaps as tournament director.

But first the dog’s throat is played. The area of ​​Berlin is impressive. There are five players in the top 10. No. 1 is No. 4 in the world, Aryna Sabalenka (23 / Belarus), No. 2 is No. 6 in the world, Elina Svitolina (26 / Ukraine).

There are two more Grand Slam winners in Berlin along with Garbine Muguruza (Spain) and Bianca Andreescu (Canada).