By AFPMore by this AuthorPARISAngelique Kerber admitted the pressure of being world number one was beginning to eat away at her fragile confidence after becoming the first top seed in French Open history to lose in the opening round. Before this year, the earliest exits suffered by a top seed on Paris were in the second round — Justine Henin in 2004 and Serena Williams in 2014. For Kerber, it was a second successive opening round defeat in Paris after losing to unseeded Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands 12 months ago. In the clay court season, Kerber lost her opener in Stuttgart where she was the defending champion, suffered a thigh injury in the third round in Madrid and lost first time out in Rome. Mercifully for left-hander Kerber the clay season is over and she can look ahead to the grass courts and Wimbledon where she was runner-up last year.

Source: Daily Nation May 28, 2017 12:33 UTC