DPA
Paris
Angelique Kerber’s farewell tournament from tennis is slowly turning into a fairytale as the former world number one reached the quarter-finals of the Paris Olympics on Tuesday, winning 6-4, 6-3 against 16th seed Leylah Fernandez.
The German clinched her third victory at Roland Garros in 1 hour 25 minutes on her second match point on another sweltering day in Paris.
Standing between her playing for the medals is China’s Australian Open runner-up Qinweng Zheng, who rallied to beat American player Emma Navarro 6-7 (7-9), 7-6 (7-4), 6-1. Navarro failed to serve out the match at 5-4 and 6-5 in the second set.
“A week ago I wouldn’t have thought that everything would work out like this. I couldn’t have imagined it would be any better. It’s fun.
And of course I’ll try to get as many more matches as I can,” Kerber said.
The 36-year-old, who won silver at the Rio 2016 Games, announced last week that she would retire after the Olympic tournament, where she is also set to play doubles with Laura Siegemund later Tuesday.
Kerber won the Australian Open and US Open in 2016, and Wimbledon in 2018, and she has now matched her best result at the French Open which is also played at Roland Garros.
She was on maternity leave from Wimbledon 2022 until January and never really regained her form of the past. She won three matches in Indian Wells and Rome, a feat she has now matched at the Olympics, which she entered after first-round exits at her last four events.
Kerber attributed her good form to the fact that she has now made her decision.
“I’m really relieved after the decision. And I have the feeling that I’m actually a bit more relaxed,” she said, ahead of the tennis tour heading over the Atlantic.
Kerber reached the last 16 after beating former world number one Naomi Osaka and Romanian Jacqueline Cristian.
On Tuesday, she got the decisive break in the first set against the 2021 US Open runner-up Fernandez for 4-3 and served out the set three games later.
Kerber broke again in the first game of the second set and was undeterred about dropping serve right after because she raced off to a 4-1 lead.
They traded breaks once more, and Kerber failed to serve out the match at 5-2, but it was all over in the next game when Fernandez hit a backhand wide.
