Our photographer Jimmie48 is back home after his wonderful five-day coverage of the Nürnberger Versicherungscup (check out his photos and reports from Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday) and now I’m taking over. So what happened today? The second half of the second round featured two all-German matches, seeing Angelique Kerber and Mona Barthel through.
The top-seeded Angelique Kerber beat a promising rising star Anna-Lena Friedsam, ranked 112nd in the world, by cruising through the first set and then twice neutralizing Friedsam’s comeback in the second set to force a tiebreak and storm through it for a 6-2 7-6(0) victory. Kerber’s quarterfinal opponent will be Karolina Pliskova, who participated in a unique race yesterday on center court.
Mona Barthel took out eighth-seeded compatriot Annika Beck 6-2 6-4, hitting eight aces to Beck’s one, and will next face fourth seed Elina Svitolina, the new Ellesse brand ambassador, who today progressed with a 7-6(5) 6-3 win over Beatriz Garcia Vidagany.
The other two quarterfinal pairs will feature: seed No.7 Caroline Garcia vs. Karine Knapp and second seed Eugenie Bouchard vs. Yaroslava Shvedova.
