Zhuhai: Pavlyuchenkova too strong for Kerber

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova has continued her mastery of Angelique Kerber with a three-set win over the German at the WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai.

Pavlyuchenkova recorded her third win from three meetings against Kerber in 2017, winning 6-3 3-6 6-2 to top the table in the Rose Group; she’ll next face Ash Barty.

Each of Pavlyuchenkova’s matches against Kerber has extended three sets in 2017, but after losing four straight to the former world No.1 across 2015 and 2016, she’s flipped the script in their rivalry.

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The head-to-head now stands at 6-6.

“I felt kind of fresh when I got here, but today before the first serve I thought, ‘my gosh I’m so happy it’s the last tournament’ (of the season),” Pavlyuchenkova said.

“Some (players) are just happy to be here, but for me I said I wanted to win as many matches as I could, because once I’m on the court I want to win all the time.”

Since reaching the semifinals in Tokyo – where she again fell to Pavlyuchenkova – Kerber has lost four of her next five matches, slipping to world No.19 after being ranked No.1 as recently as July.

In other results on Tuesday in Zhuhai, CoCo Vandeweghe beat Chinese wildcard Peng Shuai 3-6 6-3 6-2, and Julia Goerges overcame Magdalena Rybarikova 6-1 7-6(5).