Internazionali BNL d'Italia - Angie def Begu 3-6, 7-5, 7-5

When the match begun, we knew it was going to be another hard battle, but believe me or not, I knew Angie would make it through, i didn't know how, but i knew she would.  She was not consistant when she started the match, which is usually her trademark,  but we weren't sure yet on which side the first set would go, as we felt that Begu didn't have her match plan well installed either.  As the set went by, the Romanian found her mark, but Angie had not decided yet to let go of her plan A to move on to her usually very effective plan B, which is run, return all the balls in and wait for the opening - and as the way it looked then, openings wouldn't present themselves often so we felt she was trying to create them.

Botton line, with too many unforced errors, Angie dropped the first one 6-3.  The second set started much better, how better? Angie was more consistant and shows more intensity but she had an opponent on the other side that just refused to give in.   She took the lead first, and kept it, not always in the finest way but she did it until a few unforced errors gave an opportunity for Begu to break her serve when serving for the set.  Angie mumbled a little but managed to regroup and broke again to give herself another chance to serve for the set, which she did.   A little bit of the same story in the third set, and it is all about a ridiculously low % of first serve in.  What matter at the end, is that she did find a way to win the match, which allowed us to to see this magnificent double first pumps.

In short, the hightlight video below doesn't make amend how us, fans of Angie, was on the edge of our chair during the entire game, and we did, and we would have stayed behind, no matter the result, we are just immensily happy that she finally made it a step further in Rome, a step she hadn't reached since 2012.

Internazionali BNL d'Italia - Angie def Diyas 6-2, 7-6(6)

No one said it was gonna be easy and even finishing it in 2 sets, was a little bit of a tour de force for our favorite.

Let see how it happened - Diyas served first, but even if Kerber broke, we felt it wouldn't be that easy.  Several points were well battled but in the first set, Angie managed to win points when it  mattered the most and she sure was ready to run for it.  One of the most incredible point was indeed on an incredible distance lenght ran by the German to retrive a smash from one side of the court and than run to the other to hit a winner.  Her forehand was definitively a weapon of choice today, often powerful and precised.

It the second set, there were a slight momentun shift probably caused but he intensity needed to close the first set, and Diyas took the lead 3-1.  Despite trailing a break down, Angie hung on to finally level up the match in an impressive manner playing some awesome tennis when she needed it to break her oppenent as she was serving for the set.   A little hip cup when serving at 5-6, she even saved a set point to finally forced a tie-breaker, which she won, not without a fight, 8-6.



"I'm actually happy after the last two weeks that I'm back," Kerber told WTA Insider after the match. "After Stuttgart it was a really tough time because I had a lot of pain in my leg, and now I can say I was without pain the whole match and I could play my game like I practiced the past few days.

"It was a bit up-and-down match, but at the end, I think the whole match was a good match from me. Especially because it's the first round, the first match on clay outside, it's always a little bit different and tricky, but I think the whole thing was a good day."

"I'm really happy to be on court again and after the practices, and the treatments I had, I'm quite happy about the performance today," Kerber added.

"For me, it would be good to have as many matches as I can...before going to Paris. I'm just looking match-to-match, and I don't have too big of expectations for this tournament. I try to play as good as I can, and make the transfer from the practice to the matches, and going to Paris with a lot of confidence."

Discovering Rome

After her practice with Stycova, Angie when out and enjoy the city.  Social Medias are pretty cool, even for the players I guess it's easy to take a pic and hit sent to share a small glipse of their everyday life.  Well, it is great for us that they take time to do it for their fans once in a while.  Angie's twitter address is added to the right menu, but i just thought it was nice to add it in this blog!

Thanks Angie for sharing a little bit while travelling.  Rome is indeed a wonderful place!

We also learn that Makarova won't be playing the single, so Zarina Diyas takes her place in the draw to face Angie on the first round.  Go Angie!!!

Practice makes perfect

Angie had a practice session with Gavrilova yesterday (in orange), and today, it was with Pavlyuchenkova (in bleu). Tomorrow, she has an hour with Strycova.

Arrival in Rome

I guess you can't really escape de Media when you are Angelique Kerber.  She arrived in Rome a bit earlier, like she likes to do when possible.  She is schedule to practiced with Gavrilova tomorrow to get used to the roman clay.

Enjoy Rome Angie!

Back on court

Angie had been on the side line for several days, and she now back on court, and seems happy to be. The following was taken from her instragram earlier today.

This tight seems much better!

Roland Garros Outfit

The new Adidas collection is out for Roland Garros.  We all know that clay is not Angie's favorite surface, but I have a feeling that despite this shorten prep, she is gonna surprised us.