In the first match between the two Germans, tenth-ranked Angelique Kerber made light work out of Carina Witthoeft, the 20-year-old Hamburg native currently ranked 53rd. Kerber, riding on the momentum of a strong grass season that included a title run in Birmingham knocking out of the tournament strong opponents such as Tsvetana Pironkova, Jelena Jankovic and Sabine Lisicki, increased her win streak to six matches. She posted the third 6/0, 6/0 result of the first round so far.
Witthoeft, whose grass swing includes two losses, in the opening round of Rosmalen and in the first round of qualifying in Birmingham, hit the court for only her second career main draw match at Wimbledon, following another opening round loss in 2013 to Kimiko Date-Krumm. The youngster, however, was no match for her 27-year-old opponent.
Despite a tight beginning, as Kerber only broke Witthoeft in her second opportunity of the opening game and had to fend off break points the first time she came up to serve, the former world number four established her game and raced to a first set bagel, as Witthoeft squandered three game points that would earn her the fifth game of the match. The first set took only 25 minutes to be completed.
The second set was even faster. A double fault and a botched smash gifted the opening game to Kerber. She then broke her counterpart again at 30 in the third game and at 15 in the fifth before serving it out from deuce the very next game, completing the double bagel.
Angelique Kerber now moves on to face Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who dispatched Mona Barthel in three in the opening round. Their head-to-head is currently tied at three apiece, but their second round meeting will be their first at a Grand Slam or a grass tournament.