• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Tennis Panorama

Tennis News and Information, Tournament Coverage and Features

Tennis Panorama News

Tennis news and information, tournament coverage and features

  • Home
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Staff
  • RSS
  • Features
  • Tournament Coverage
  • Social Media
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
    • pinterest
  • Podcast
    • ITunes
  • Tennis Panorama Archive 2008-2017
You are here: Home / Front Page News / Cornet Topples Wimbledon Champ Kerber as Stephens and Sharapova Cruise to Easy Wins

Cornet Topples Wimbledon Champ Kerber as Stephens and Sharapova Cruise to Easy Wins

August 8, 2018 by Tennis Panorama News

By Charles David Mathieu-Poulin and Maxime Labrecque 

(August 8, 2018) MONTREAL – Fourth seed Angelique Kerber was upset in her first match coming back from her Wimbledon title, losing 6-4 6-1 to Alize Cornet in the second round of the Coupe Rogers in Montreal. Also on Center Court, Maria Sharapova and Sloane Stephens looked much more comfortable, advancing to the third round with straightforward two-set wins.

Kerber never seemed to find her rhythm as the match moved along: “It is never easy to change surfaces, I think I needed a bit more time to get used to hardcourts again, have more matches and practice time.”

On the other side of the net, Cornet did well to keep her composure and adjust her tactics to get the win: “My match plan was different today (than in 2017 Beijing, where she also beat Kerber). I was playing more to the backhand side, also being aggressive. I’m happy that I actually could do it the whole match.”

The Frenchwoman, who defeated a Top 5 player for the eighth time in her career, now faces No. 15 Ashleigh Barty in the third round, after the Australian defeated Alison Van Uytvanck 7-6(7) 6-2 earlier on Wednesday.

Maria Sharapova

On paper, the match-up between Maria Sharapova and 12th seed Daria Kasatkina was intriguing. Kasatkina is currently the top Russian player in the WTA rankings, a role Maria Sharapova played often throughout her career, and is coming from back-to-back quarterfinals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. On the other hand, Sharapova had fallen in the first round of Wimbledon, only her fourth first round loss in 53 Grand Slam appearances.

It was clear from the start that Sharapova was in spectacular form, reeling off the first seven games. Kasatkina, who likes to construct her points with spins and angles, did not have enough time to get in rallies, as her countrywoman would play first-strike tennis with ruthless hitting from both sides. What could have been an intriguing affair ended up a Sharapova masterclass, as the 5-time Grand Slam champion dominated her opponent 6-0 6-2 in 74 minutes. Sharapova will face 6th seed Caroline Garcia next.

As ominous rain clouds started to appear over Stade IGA, it seemed like Sloane Stephens didn’t want to extend her presence on court either. Facing the sole Canadian remaining in the Montreal singles draw, wildcard Françoise Abanda, the 2017 US Open champion and 2018 French Open finalist stormed off to a 6-0 2-0 lead in just over half an hour. To the delight of the crowd, the local hope then started playing better and getting closer in rallies, but it was too little too late as Stephens completed a one-sided 6-0, 6-2 lead.

Also a winner on Wednesday was unseeded Kiki Bertens, who repeated her Wimbledon round-of-16 win by defeating 9th seed Karolina Pliskova 6-2 6-2, as well as defending champion and 5th seed Elina Svitolina, who won as Mihaela Buzarnescu had to retire after twisting her ankle late in the third set.

Mihaela Buzarnescu

The Ukrainian described the situation as “the worst injury I have ever seen in my career,” with the Romanian laying down on the ground for multiple minutes in pain and being taken off the court in a wheelchair.

 

Charles David Mathieu-Poulin and Maxime Labrecque are covering Coupe Rogers in Montreal for Tennis Panorama News.

 

Share

Filed Under: Contributors, Features, Front Page News, tennis news, tournament coverage, tournaments Tagged With: Alizé Cornet, Angelique Kerber, Charles David Mathieu-Poulin, Coupe Rogers, Daria Kasatkina, Françoise Abanda, Maria Sharapova, Maxime Labrecque, Mihaela Buzarnescu, Montreal, Rogers Cup, tennis, tennis news, WTA

Primary Sidebar

Search Tennis Panorama


Subscribe to Tennis Panorama via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this site and receive notifications of new articles by email.

newsnow_f_ab

cheap tennis shoes from China on DHgate.com

planetbarkad

Tennis Panorama on Twitter @TennisNewsTPN

Tweets by @TennisNewsTPN

Interested in advertising on this site? Please fill out a contact form.

RSS ATP World Tour

  • ‘Grateful’ Djokovic Poses With Trophy For Australian Open Champion Photoshoot
  • Djokovic Returns To No. 1, Mover Of Week
  • Djokovic To Make Biggest World No. 1 Jump In History
  • ATP Tennis Podcast: Australian Open Recap
  • Brain Game: Djokovic Dominates In His Domain To Dismiss Tsitsipas

RSS WTA Tour

RSS ESPN AP Tennis Headlines

  • Way-too-early tennis rankings and predictions for the rest of 2023 January 30, 2023
  • Djokovic back at No. 1 on ATP after Aussie Open January 30, 2023
  • Advantage, Novak Djokovic in the race to be tennis' GOAT January 29, 2023
  • On top Down Under: Djokovic ties men's record January 29, 2023
  • How Novak Djokovic won his 10th title in Melbourne January 29, 2023

More Tennis Sites

15-lovetennis (French website)

ATP World Tour

BBC Tennis

ESPN

Jon Wertheim Sports Illustrated

International Tennis Federation (ITF)

New York Times Tennis page

Tennis Atlantic

Tennis Channel

Tennis with an Accent

Tennis Identity
USA Today

Tennis TV

WTA

ZooTennis.com






Footer

Subscribe to Tennis Panorama via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this website and receive notifications of new posts by email.

January 2023
S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031  
« Dec    

Categories

© by TennisPanorama 2014 and beyond
 

Loading Comments...