Angelique Kerber and Carla Suarez Navarro met in the quarterfinal of the tournament in Stuttgart, with both looking to book their place in the semi final. Coming into the match today, Kerber and Suarez Navarro had faced off on five previous occasions. Kerber won three out of the five previous clashes, giving herself a slight edge in the head to head. Suarez Navarro would have been wanting to level the head to head by winning the match today, unfortunately for the Spaniard this did not happen as Kerber was too strong.
Early break costs Suarez Navarro
Kerber got off to the best possible start in the match. The German, opened with love hold before going on to break Suarez Navarro. Kerber made the most of the crowds support and Suarez Navarro's slow start to take her first break point opportunity of the match. The world number three then consolidated the break with another strong hold of service, putting herself 3-0 up in the set.
Suarez Navarro eventually found herself on the scoreboard. The Spaniard, held her service game to love, to win her first game of the set and slightly dent Kerber's momentum. Suarez Navarro then worked herself into a position where she could break her opponents serve. Unfortunately for Suarez Navarro, Kerber fought off the break point chance before going on to win the game herself.
The next two games, went in the direction of the player who was serving. Both Suarez Navarro and Kerber held their serve with relative ease, with neither dropping more than two points. This put Kerber 5-2 up in the set.
Suarez Navarro needed to win her service game, to keep herself in the set for at least one more game. Kerber found herself with two break and set point opportunities. Suarez Navarro found a way to prevent Kerber from taking one of the set point chances, however, despite her best efforts Kerber was too strong for Suarez Navarro. The German capitalized on the second set point opportunity to put herself a set ahead.
Suarez Navarro battles, but Kerber too strong
Kerber opened the second set with another strong hold of service. The German then raced to a 40-15 lead in the second game. This time around Suarez Navarro fought of both of Kerber's break point opportunities. The Spaniard gifted Kerber another change to break her service but she managed to prevent Kerber from taking the chance once again. After another three deuces, Suarez Navarro found a way to hold her serve and get herself on the scoreboard a lot earlier than she did in the first set.
Over the course of the next three games, both players held their service with relative ease, with Kerber picking up another love hold along the way. Neither player faced a break point again until the sixth game of the set. After some good play by Kerber, she found herself with another opportunity to put herself ahead in the set. This time around Suarez Navarro could do nothing to stop Kerber from taking the break point and putting herself in an even more commanding position in the match.
The world number three consolidated the break of serve, before Suarez Navarro comfortably won her service game. This took the score to 5-3 and gave Kerber the chance to serve for the match. Suarez Navarro was not willing to go down without one final fight and the Spaniard made sure that she was still in the match, at least for one more game. Suarez Navarro capitalized on Kerber faltering under the pressure of serving for the set, to give herself a fighting chance in the match.
Unfortunately for Suarez Navarro, it was too little too late. With Kerber spurred on by the crowd, the Spaniard could do nothing to stop her opponent from breaking her with ease. Kerber looked comfortable and undeterred by her failure to serve the match out, as she took the game, set and match on the first time of asking.
After just under an hour and fifteen minutes, Kerber had defeated Suarez Navarro, 6-2, 6-4. The world number three now progresses to the semifinal where she will face Petra Kvitova.
