Angelique Kerber came through a hard-fought 3 set match to win her first grass-court title, defeating Karolina Pliskova 6-7 6-3 7-6.
Angelique Kerber wins Aegon Classic Birmingham
The two players have played four times previously, splitting the matches 2-2, however Pliskova went into the match with a 2015 victory over Kerber. With such contrasting games and very similar pathes to the final in Birmingham it would be anyone’s guess as to who would walk away with the title.
Kerber started the match the better of the two women, dominating rallies from the baseline using her powerful precise game, breaking Pliskova in her opening service game. With both women finally settling into the final, it looked as though Kerber was in complete control, serving with a break and looking rock-solid on serve herself the first set looked in the bag for the #4 seed.
Pliskova was looking down the barrel of the gun 3-5, 0-40 down in the first set it looked to be over, yet the fiesty Czech player proved her worth, saving four set points and forcing Kerber to serve out the set. Kerber, clearly dazed from missing four set points faultered, handing her advantage back to her opponent. With both women back on level terms the first set went to a decider and with Pliskova having all the momentum she pounced stealing the first set from Kerber 7 points to 5 in the tiebreak.
With the first set gone Kerber looked nervous, her usual precise style and cool head now turned to panic and frustration, Pliskova capitalized on Kerbers clear dip in form, grabbing an early break at the start f the second, looking like Kerber’s chances had well and truly deserted her. Pliskova’s break wasn’t to last long, with the set and the first game gone Kerber’s fire had been reignited, breaking straight back and reeling off four straight games to lead 4-1 in the second set.
With her level back to it’s best Kerber wasn’t going to let another lead slip, her usual fine tuned game, powerful returns and fantastic rallying had returned allowing her to keep the pressure on, eventually taking the second set 6-4.
Heading into third it looked as though Kerber would steam-roll her Czech opponent. She now had her emotions, her shots and the crowd firmly on-side. With Pliskova starting the struggle on serve Kerber opened set three with an early break of her opponents serve. Leading 1-3 Kerber was rock solid on serve, her ruthless ground strokes and ability to chase every ball down was worrying the Czech player who started losing more and more points on serve. It wasn’t until Kerber tried to serve the match out at 5-4 in the third set that she ever looked in doubt, but with Pliskova applying the pressure when needed she faltered, handing the break back.
With both women back on serve a tiebreak looked inevitable and perhaps a fitting way to end such a undecided match. Heading into the tiebreak the match was on a knife-edge, both players were clearly nervous and not going risky shots. It wasn’t until five points into the tiebrek that either woman won a point on serve, but at four points all Kerber took her chance. Pliskova hit a routine forehand long giving her a 5-4 lead and with points on her serve she finally looked the most comfortable she’d looked all match, taking it 7 points to 4 to win her first ever grass-court title and her first ever in Birmingham.
Kerber is not known for having a powerful serve, however today the German was serving at a very high percentage, her return game looked very impressive throughout, returning the big, heavy serve of Pliskova with ease. Kerber managed a solid 76% of first serve points won and 66% behind her second serve, she also struck six aces and had only one double fault.
The world #10 has had a great year so far and with three titles so far in 2015 she looks a sure threat ahead of the third grand-slam tournament of the year. She has upped her status to an extremely dangerous dark horse heading to Wimbledon.
