World No. 6 Anett Kontaveit refused to call herself a clay specialist after making a winning start in Stuttgart.
Kontaveit, seeded at No. 5, made a positive start to her Stuttgart campaign as she passed a tricky opener.
Kontaveit, 26, recovered from a set downt o beat former world No. 1 Angelique Kerber 3-6 6-4 6-4.
āI wouldnāt say Iām a clay specialist. My style of play is aggressive and suits other surfaces more. But it makes the game more interesting, that different people have different advantages. So I like that there are surface changes throughout the year,” Kontaveit told WTA Insider.
Kontaveit extends her indoors winning streak
Kontaveit is aiming to win her fifth consecutive indoors title.
Kontaveit hasn’t lost an indoors match in a while as she has won her last 21 indoors matches.
Kontaveit’s streak started in Ostrava and since then the Estonian has also won Moscow, Cluj-Napoca and St. Petersburg.
āIām aware of it because of social media. But these tournaments are so strong and every match is a huge challenge. When I step on the court I donāt think ‘Oh, weāre indoors now so Iām going to beat everyone (laughs),” Kontaveit said of her astonishing indoors streak.
Kontaveit was in danger of ending her indoors winning streak on Wednesday but recovered from a set down to avoid a loss to Kerber.
Kontaveit made a slow start to the match as Kerber claimed three breaks in the first set to win the opener.
After a bad first set, Kontaveit bounced back at the start of the second set as she broke Kerber in the opening game of the set and held on to her serve the rest of the set to force a decider.
In the third set, Kontaveit claimed two early breaks and that was enough for her to complete a comeback win.
Kontaveit plays Ekaterina Alexandrova for a place in the Stuttgart quarterfinal.