Angelique Kerber is picking up more and more momentum at Wimbledon and is in the second round after an enormous increase in performance.
The 2018 winner had a lot of trouble on Saturday in the third round match against Alexandra Sasnowitsch from Belarus - but after a rain break, Kerber played like a substitute and won 2: 6, 6: 0, 6: 1.
On “Manic Monday”, the 33-year-old now has to deal with young US hopes Cori Gauff or Kaja Juvan (Slovenia).
For Kerber, who had already won the dress rehearsal in Bad Homburg, it was the eighth win on grass in a row.
Since many of the favorites failed early on, the field for the Kiel woman is wide open.
In addition, Kerber is the only remaining Wimbledon winner in the tournament.
With her research and risky game, Sasnowitsch, who had benefited from the injury-related abandonment of US superstar Serena Williams in the first round, presented Kerber with major problems.
The Kiel woman gave up her first two service games directly and fell 4-0 down.
Kerber acted almost entirely on the defensive, her brave opponent, however, hardly made any mistakes.
Sasnowitsch, ranked 72 places behind Kerber as 100th in the world rankings, looked much fresher than the German.
On Thursday, the three-time Grand Slam winner had been on the pitch for 3:20 hours in the hard-fought second round victory against the Spaniard Sara Sorribes and revealed problems on her left wrist.
When the score was 1: 5, the rain ensured that the players had to leave the field - and gave Kerber the chance to rearrange himself during the one and a half hour break.
Although the first round could no longer be saved, Kerber now showed a completely different body language.
She seemed much more handy in the second round, forced Sasnowitsch to make mistakes with more power and better returns and gave her the maximum penalty with the 6-0. The Belarusian was visibly impressed and had no chance against Kerber's dominance in the third set either. After 75 minutes, the German number one transformed the first match ball.