Rarely you would see two former world number ones and Wimbledon champions face off in the second round of an International event, but it will happen at the 2019 #MallorcaOpen as top seed #AngeliqueKerber battles the resurgent wildcard #MariaSharapova on Thursday evening. A highly-anticipated match ever since the draw was released, this dream match-up will take place at 6.30 pm local time and the winner will, only, earn a place in the quarterfinals.
Kerber’s season so far: Underwhelming but still decent
A player of Kerber’s calibre might be a little disappointed with how her season has gone so far, but looking at it from a neutral point of view the German has enjoyed some decent results after finding herself ranked 11th currently on the Porsche Race to Shenzhen leaderboard.
Kerber has been struggling for form recently having injured her ankle during the clay-court season which forced her to concede a walkover in Madrid and withdrew from Rome as a result. A disappointing first-round exit at Roland Garros to rising star Anastasia Potapova marked the end of her tough stretch of results.
Entering the grass-court season, Kerber knows that she has a bulk of points to defend. The reigning Wimbledon champion returned to Mallorca for the second year in running and shrugged off nightmares from her first-round exit to Alison Riske last year by avoiding a major upset against qualifier Ysaline Bonaventure in the opening round.
Sharapova’s season so far: Injury struggles saw the Russian missing four months on the tour
Due to her notorious shoulder acting up once again, Sharapova was forced to take a four-month break from the tour to undergo a minor procedure and seemed to have finally fixed the issue which has been lingering around for more than 10 years as she claimed that she is “pain-free” now.
Starting the year in Shenzhen where she retired in the quarterfinals due to a thigh injury, Sharapova rebounded to stun then-world number three Caroline Wozniacki to reach the fourth round at the Australian Open. The Russian participated at the St. Petersburg Ladies’ Trophy but was forced to withdraw in the second round as her shoulder gave way once more. That proved to be the last match she had played before Mallorca.
Sharapova was handed a wildcard into the tournament, where she made her first-ever appearance. Handed a tough first-round battle against rising star Viktoria Kuzmova, the former world number one dug deep and saved two set points before steamrolling through the second set to grab the terrific 7-6, 6-0 win.
Match Analysis: Who will prevail?
Kerber and Sharapova have evenly split their last eight meetings, and this will be their ninth career meeting. However, Kerber had prevailed on the last three occasions which they have met and will come into this encounter as the overwhelming favourite as well.
The last time Sharapova had beaten Kerber came all the way back in 2013 on clay, and the fact that the German prevailed in their only grass meeting (2014 Wimbledon fourth round), which was an absolute classic, causes her winning chances to be even slimmer. It will be an uphill task for the tall Russian to be defeating the top players immediately after her comeback from shoulder surgery, but you can just never eliminate Sharapova’s chances.
Kerber will carry the pressure of being the favourite into the match and knows that she has to be in great shape heading into Wimbledon as the defending champion. Her counterpunching tennis works well on the Mallorca grass as her ability to redirect the balls will certainly cause some trouble for her hard-hitting opponent.
Despite coming into Mallorca not with many confident wins under her belt in the previous month, Kerber should be able to find the motivation and hunger to prevail against a top-notch opponent opposite the net and will be favoured to claim the win. However, don’t be surprised if Sharapova can snatch a set or even two.
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