World number four Angelique Kerber opened her second week campaign at this year's Wimbledon Championships with a straight-set victory over Misaki Doi. The pair famously clashed at the opening round of this year's Australian Open where Kerber saved match point en route to the win and eventually her first Grand Slam trophy.
With the win, the German makes her third appearance in the last eight of the tournament. More interestingly, Kerber has now made the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in even-numbered years, having done so in 2012 (she went on to reach the last four) and 2014.
Kerber clears Doi's challenge to take the first set
Both players began the match by trading service holds until the third game where a double fault, couple with two sloppy errors off Doi's racket handed Kerber the first break to go up 2-1. This was then followed by five comfortable consecutive holds of serve, both women never faced a single break point on serve throughout this period of the match.
That changed however in the ninth game with Kerber up 5-3 and Doi serving to stay in the set as a double fault and another unforced error gave the German two set points. The Japanese player was able to fight both off but could not do enough to hold serve as another costly unforced error set up a third opportunity for Kerber to close out the set, which she did comfortably, winning it 6-3 in 36 minutes.
Smooth sailing into the last eight for Kerber
The second set saw the German in a hurry as she broke her opponent twice to race off to a 4-0 lead. Doi then landed herself her first break point of the set and just her second of the entire match in the fourth game after forcing an error of the Kerber backhand. A forehand error however saw the opportunity to break back disappear. A forehand winner by Kerber followed suit which saw her go up 5-0, a game away from victory.
Doi did manage to avoid the bagel when she held serve to make her opponent serve out the match. Kerber did so in style, converting her first match point with a forehand winner to book her place in the quarterfinals.
The Japanese player did produce a greater proportion of first serves than her German opponent (72% for Doi and 62% for Kerber). However, it was Kerber who was able to capitalise on her first serves better, winning 65% of first serve points as opposed to Doi's 56%.
It was Doi who played the more risky game, producing 20 winners (13 coming from her forehand wing, her biggest weapon), three more than Kerber but it was her 25 unforced errors which played a huge role in the outcome of the match. Kerber was much cleaner in the unforced errors department, managing just nine of them. Doi also failed to convert either of the two break opportunities she had as well.
Up next
The fourth seed will meet fifth-seeded Simona Halep in the last eight. Kerber will look to score her second win in a row over the Romanian and continue her streak of making her second Wimbledon semifinal for the second Olympic year in a row.