PETE ZIEBRON
World #92 Angelique Kerber defeated 26th seeded Flavia Pennetta today to advance to the semifinals of the 2011 US Open. Kerber will play 2010 Roland Garros Finalist Samantha Stosur on Saturday.
A couple weeks ago in Cincinnati, fellow German Andrea Petkovic expounded on Kerber's expected breakthrough: "I promise you she's going to be at least top 30 like in six months, because she worked really, really hard and she's a great player."
Kerber's victory today meant that 3 of the quarterfinal matches saw the higher seeded (or unseeded in Kerber's case) player defeat a higher ranked player. In other action, #9 Samantha Stosur defeated #2 Vera Zvonareva in straight sets and #28 Serena Williams took out #17 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. The only quarter where the higher seed was victorious was in the top half, where #1 Caroline Wozniacki beat #10 Andrea Petrokic.
Like Wozniacki and world #22 Sabine Lisicki, Angelique Kerber's parents are Polish however all were born outside of Poland - Wozniacki in Denmark and Lisicki & Kerber in Germany. All 3 players have also appeared in a Grand Slam Semifinal this year (Wozniacki in Australia & the US Open, Lisicki at Wimbledon and Kerber at the US Open.)
Angelique Kerber will most likely make Andrea Petkovic's declaration about her ranking ring true, much sooner that the 6 months that Petko suggested. With her result to date at the US Open, Kerber will surely surpass her career high of #45 that she earned this January.
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