Katerina Siniakova stunned three-time Grand Slam champion Angelique Kerber in the first round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Tuesday to record only her second main-draw win of 2020.
The world No.61 Siniakova, who had never beaten Kerber in their three previous meetings, needed only 69 minutes to dispatch the 15th seed 6-3 6-1. Czech Republic’s Siniakova raced through the first set without facing a break point and completed the second set with an even more dominant score even though she was broken once.
Overall, Kerber never looked comfortable and that is evident in the stats: zero aces, five double faults, 11 winners and 23 unforced errors. On the other hand, Siniakova’s winners-to-unforced-errors differential was +11.
In the second round, Siniakova will face the winner of an all-Russian encounter between former Top 10 players: 23-year-old qualifier Daria Kasatkina and 36-year-old wildcard Vera Zvonareva.
Check back at the end of the day as I’ll share a bunch of Day 2 photos from the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.
