Kerber survives a close one with Siniakova as Sakkari melts down in the desert

Angelique Kerber stepped out during the night session to take on Katerina Siniakova. The Czech player loves slower courts which allows her to unleash her power from the baseline was happy to play this match during the night and she almost pulled an upset. The start of the match was great for Kerber who was able to absorb most of the power Siniakova unleashed.

The Czech player also misfired a lot and that lost her the set 1-6. The 2nd set was a proper mess by moth players as Kerber was up early 2-0. After giving away that lead she found herself up a break 3 more times and each time she lost it. In the tiebreak, she complicated things further by losing it 4-7. The final set was a close one with Kerber losing her serve early on but winning 3 games in a row to make it 3-1.

After squandering that lead once more she was able to finally close it out with 7-5 in the 3rd after 2 hours and 32 minutes played. Kerber narrowly avoided the disaster of crashing out in the event but Maria Sakkari was not so lucky. She faced a much more firm opposition from Viktorija Golubic who was able to come back and complete the upset.

Sakkari struggled early with her serve which is why the first set was closer than it needed to be. Golubic was abysmal on her 2nd serve and the Greek did most of her damage there winning the first with 7-5. The 2nd set was played much better by both. Sakkari settled in nicely but simply got outplayed by Golubic who was exceptional.

In the final one, Sakkari completed the meltdown with a very poor player from the baseline with many errors against a player who was feeling herself after a stellar 2nd set. Golubic pulls another upset in 2021 with a stellar win over Sakkari.