Following up on her impressive clay court run recently, Angelique Kerber survived a rollercoaster affair against Karolina Pliskova to lift the Aegon Classic Birmingham title.

Seeded fourth at this year’s event, Kerber was forced to rally her way out of trouble several times during the match. After dropping the opening set in a tiebreak, Krber rallied back to snatch the second set and go up 5-3 in the third. It was here that she allowed her Czech adversary back into the match to lead 6-5. It was only during the decisive tiebreak that Kerber actually stormed to victory on the heels of three straight points. She closed out the match 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-6(4).

“Karolina is a great player,” Kerber said. “She served unbelievably well in the important moments, and she was hitting the balls so close to the lines. I had no chance in the big moments in the first set.

“But I just kept fighting point by point, and it’s just an unbelievable feeling to win today.”

Kerber has now won her third Premier-level title of the season following consecutive wins in Charleston and Stuttgart. Serena Williams is the only player who has done better this season. This should give Kerber some confidence ahead of the Wimbledon Championships.

“This gives me a lot of confidence,” she said. “My goal coming to Birmingham was to get a lot of matches, and now I had my fifth of the week, so it couldn’t be better preparation before Wimbledon. I’ll just enjoy the day today, and we’ll see what comes next, and we’ll see what happens there.”

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