Early in the 2019 Mallorca Open, tennis fans will get to witness two former World No. 1s – Maria Sharapova and Angelique Kerber, fight for a place in the quarterfinal. The match will take place on Wednesday, June 20 and the timings will be announced soon. Get Maria Sharapova v Angelique Kerber live streaming options with the preview here.
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Maria Sharapova v Angelique Kerber Head to Head
The two ladies have met a total of eight times on the WTA Tour and the head to head tally is currently tied at 4-4. Kerber has won three of their last four meetings, with their most recent match taking place in the 2018 Australian Open.
Their last grass meeting took place in the 2014 Wimbledon where the German prevailed in three sets.
Sharapova Starts on a Positive Note
Playing in her first professional WTA match in almost six months, Sharapova marked her comeback with a 7-6(10), 6-0 win over Viktoria Kuzmova. The Russian took some time to find her rhythm, losing her service twice in the first set.
However, she got back on the break immediately and took the set to a tie-breaker. After a lot of rallies, her experience and grit came into play as she took the set. Following that, it was a much more clinical performance by Sharapova, who trumped the young Slovak without dropping a single set. To make it more interesting, she just committed two unforced errors in set two.
On the whole, the former World No. 1 won 79% of her first service points and looked in control for most of the match.
The former Wimbledon champion has been troubled a lot by her right shoulder but it appears that taking her time to recover has done the trick for her. Her true test, however, will be against Kerber.
Kerber Determined to Win a Title
In contrast to Sharapova, Kerber had to fight for three sets against the Belgian qualifier Ysaline Bonaventure. The match lasted for a little under two hours and saw the German fight hard to quell the 118th ranked player.
Even though she lost the second set by a close margin, she staged a pretty impressive comeback in the third set and took the match 7-5, 4-6, 6-2.
The season so far hasn’t been kind to World No. 6. The clay season, particularly, saw her fight viral illness and ankle injury that led to subsequent withdrawals from events in Madrid and Rome. Ultimately, she summed her clay season with a first-round exit in the Roland Garros.
Before that, she had a fairly decent run where she reached the semifinal in Doha and the final in the Indian Wells Open.
Kerber v Sharapova Predictions & Tips
This is going to be a battle of the giants that can very well go either way. Both of them can play on the clay surface and are quite familiar with each others’ games. The edge here, however, is with Kerber mainly because she has been on the circuit for much more time this season in comparison to her Russian adversary.
Tip: Over 19.5 games in the match. (888Sport)
The Kerber v Sharapova match can be watched live with Unibet here on June 20, 2019. Also, get the latest tennis tips and predictions here.
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