Rome (AP) – Angelique Kerber failed for the third time in a row in a tennis tournament in the first round.
The German number 1 lost her opening match at the Masters in Rome against the American Coco Gauff 1: 6 and 4: 6. For the 34-year-old number 19 in the world rankings, it was the fifth first-round defeat this year. The clay court event in Italy’s capital is endowed with 2.527 million US dollars.
Most recently, Kerber gave up the Masters 1000 tournament in Madrid because of a cold. Before the start of the French Open in just under two weeks, the three-time Grand Slam tournament winner is far from her top form. In Stuttgart she had also failed in the first round, previously she had lost her two singles in the defeat with the German women’s team in Kazakhstan in the Billie Jean King Cup.