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Angelique Kerber Loses Match and Her Bid for the No. 1 Ranking

Related Topics: Angelique Kerber

MASON, Ohio — On a day of possible regime change, only smaller breakthroughs were achieved.

Second-ranked Angelique Kerber of Germany had a chance to end Serena Williams’s more than three-year reign as the top player in women’s tennis by winning the Western & Southern Open on Sunday, but her bid failed with a 6-3, 6-1 loss to No. 18 Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic.

Kerber, who defeated Williams in the Australian Open final in January and lost to her in the Wimbledon final last month, had reached the Olympic final last weekend in Rio de Janeiro, and seemed exhausted by the end of her match against Pliskova.