Three-time Grand Slam winner Angelique Kerber reached the quarter-finals at the WTA tournament in Strasbourg after a hard fight. The 34-year-old defeated Aliaksandra Sasnovich from Belarus 6: 2, 3: 6, 6: 4 on Wednesday evening and now meets Poland’s Magda Linette, eighth seed.
Kerber, who was second in the tournament, converted her second match ball after almost two hours. The woman from Kiel can thus continue to collect match practice for the French Open, the second Grand Slam tournament of the year begins on Sunday.
Previously, Kerber had failed in their first matches in Miami, Stuttgart and Rome.
Anna-Lena Friedsam, on the other hand, missed a surprise. The 28-year-old from Neuwied lost to fourth-placed Belgian Elise Mertens 5-7, 5-7 and thus failed in the round of 16.