Kerber Ends Wozniacki's Reign in Copenhagen

By Erik Gudris                          Photo Credit: AFP/Thorkild Amdi

(April 15th, 2012) At times today in the finals of the e-Boks Open in Copenhagen, Germany's Angelique Kerber probably thought the whole city was against her as she took on local favorite and two-time reigning champion Caroline Wozniacki.

Kerber came out firing as she broke Wozniacki in her opening service game. Each woman exchanged breaks early in the set, but it was Kerber, especially with her powerful forehand, who ended up the winner in most of the extended rallies. Kerber's defense forced Wozniacki to hit winners of her own, 8 in total for the first set, but it was a series of late errors from the Dane at 4-5 that gave Kerber the set.

The Danish crowd's quiet reception at seeing their favorite in trouble grew even more somber when in the second set, after Wozniacki went down an early break, she fell while trying to chase after a Kerber shot. A trainer examined Wozniacki's right ankle, retaped it, and from there Wozniacki continued the match.

Wozniacki didn't let the possible injury scare dull her game as she broke back and then raced ahead to a 3-1 lead. But Kerber got her forehand firing again and eventually pulled to within 4-all. Once again it was untimely errors at the wrong moment from Wozniacki that saw her drop her serve to love.

Despite going down 15-40 while serving for the match at 5-4, Kerber kept her cool and pulled back to deuce, eventually earning her first match point on a Wozniacki error and then won the match when a Wozniacki shot sailed long giving Kerber a 6-4, 6-4 victory.

The stats tell the story as Wozniacki hit 16 winners and 24 unforced errors on the day while Kerber's 30 winners and 29 unforced errors proved she was the one dictating the outcome of play. Wozniacki was a dismal 4 of 14 on break point opportunities.

Copenhagen marks Kerber's second title of 2012, her first being at the Paris Indoors back in February. Kerber improves to 23-6 on the year.

Japan's Kimiko Date-Krumm and Rika Fujiwara won the doubles title.