Sports Fuat

They are both former world No. 1s but have not had a great start to the season on clay and have therefore requested an invitation to play in the Strasbourg tournament in order to prepare as well as possible for Roland-Garros. Karolina Pliskova and Angelique Kerber, seeded No. 1 and 2 respectively in Alsace, were playing on Monday, and they both won quite easily. The German player, now 22nd in the world and who remained on a series of six defeats (no victory on clay), was opposed to the French Diane Parry (96th), and she won 6-3, 6-4 in 1h33 . The former winner of the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open started the match very well by leading 4-1, and she did not give the Frenchwoman the slightest chance of breaking, never letting go. only one point on his last two service games. In the second set, the two players held their faceoff until 3-3. Parry was then broken in the famous seventh game, but she immediately reacted by taking the opposing serve in turn (4-4). However, Kerber (34) asserted his experience by breaking at 4-4, before concluding without shaking. Next opponent: the Belarusian Sasnovich. As for Parry, we will see her at Roland-Garros.

Pliskova did not shake too much

Karolina Pliskova, meanwhile, had won just two games since returning from a broken arm at Indian Wells, but she won the third in Alsace, at the expense of Marta Kostyuk. The Czech beat the Ukrainian 6-4, 6-2 in 1h16 after a fairly solid encounter. Led 3-1 in the first set, the former world No. 1 reversed the situation by chaining four games from 2-4. In the second set, she saved two entry break points then took the opposing serve at 2-1 and 5-2 to win.