Angelique Kerber has looked like a shell of her 2016 self. She hasn’t brought her A-game in this year’s top events, exiting in the Round of 16 in both the Australian Open and the Indian Wells Masters. But she did make it to the semifinal round in Dubai—her best finish of the season thus far.
The German beaut, who was recently re-crowned as World No. 1, now hopes to find her true form in Miami, where she marched all the way into the final four a year ago, only to yield to eventual champion Victoria Azarenka.
Kerber is 6-4 in her last 10 matches on hard courts, and this is her first-ever matchup with Ying-Ying Duan.
Ying-Ying Duan’s year has been relatively solid. Her best campaign was at Sydney, where she reached the quarterfinals before submitting to a superior Agnieszka Radwanska in straight sets (6-3, 6-2).
Duan, though, saw herself exiting in the first round of the qualifiers in Indian Wells last week. But she seems to have moved on from that already with a recent 7-6 (6), 6-3 win over Laura Siegmund in the first round in Miami.
The 27-year-old Chinese has won seven of her last 10 hardcourt matches.
Writer’s Prediction
Kerber (-800) wins after two tight sets, 6-4, 6-4.
