World No 1 Angelique Kerber suffers surprise defeat to Anett Kontaveit in Rome
Wednesday 17 May 2017 17:42, UK
Angelique Kerber lost to Anett Kontaveit at the Rome Masters as the world No 1 struggles to recreate the form that saw her reach three major finals in 2016.
Kontaveit, by contrast, is enjoying a period of scintillating form which has seen her rise to No 68 in the rankings on her breakout 2017 season and raced through 6-4 6-0.
The 21-year-old Estonian will next face Maria Sharapova's conqueror Mirjana Lucic-Baroni who benefited from the Russian wildcard's injury withdrawal.
Simona Halep maintained her strong recent run of form by overcoming Germany's Laura Siegemund 6-4 6-4. Halep will meet Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova who defeated Anastasija Sevastova in straight sets.
World No 3 Karolina Pliskova brushed aside Lauren Davis 6-1 6-1 to meet Switzerland's Timea Bacsinszky who overcame Barbara Strycova.
Australia's Daria Gavrilova secured a meeting in the third round with experienced Svetlana Kuznetsova by overcoming France's Caroline Garcia in three sets.
Julia Goerges backed up her strong victory over Kristina Mladenovic yesterday by seeing off Jelena Jankovic in three sets to secure a potential meeting with Garbine Muguruza.
Elina Svitolina will meet Mona Barthel after both won in straight sets over Alize Cornet and Wang Qiang on Wednesday.
Kiki Bertens, who reached the French Open semi-finals last year, brushed aside the talented Catherine Bellis 6-4 6-0.
