Angelique Kerber became the first German grand slam victor this century with her three-set victory against Serena Williams at the Australian Open and only the fourth female player from the country to win a grand slam title.
Advertisement
Going into the final, Williams was a heavy favorite – not only did she already have 21 Grand Slam titles to her name, including six Australian Opens, but Kerber was playing the first Grand Slam final of her career, and Williams had won the pair’s last four meetings, all of them in straight sets as well.
Firstly I would like to say congrats Serena.
“It’s my dream come”, said Kerber, who saved a match point in her first-round win over Japan’s Misaki Doi.
Williams went 53-3 in 2015 and won three grand slam titles, yet the defining moment of her season is considered to be her loss to Roberta Vinici in the semi-finals of the US Open.
“My whole life I’ve been working really hard and now I’m here. These are the best two weeks of my life”.
Then Williams stopped herself with 46 unforced errors.
Hoping to have matched Steffi Graf’s 22 Grand Slam singles titles, Serena Williams will have to settle with a record of just one title short of the record after having been beaten in an intense match that lasted two hours and nine minutes. Williams competed like a champion, but she didn’t play like one.
The German got five broken, one more than her rival. And a few points later, she did it again before breaking Williams to take a 4-2 lead.
“That’s how I am, a little bit insane, you know”, she said “I really know and I have confidence when I play my dropshots”.
Kerber won the opening game of the deciding set, then broke Williams with a scintillating forehand passing shot down the line, a 14-stroke rally that sent the crowd to its feet.
On Monday, Kerber will rise to No. 2 in the WTA Rankings, a career-high for the 28-year-old. But the phone’s battery died soon after her big win, so she couldn’t immediately see what Graf said.
“You’re really an inspiration”, she told Williams.
She added: “Here… I was trying to believe much more in myself”.
“I think I helped Steffi right now”, she said smiling, when asked about preserving Graf’s record. Kerber would break on her fifth chance in the game, when a Williams forehand went long.
But as she has done so often before, Williams slowly found her way back into the contest in the second set after notching 23 unforced errors in the opener.
The match reached its dramatic peak as Williams broke back, but couldn’t hold serve in a 16-point, back-and-forth sixth game.
Advertisement
Kerber, who had the opportunity to serve it out while leading 5-3 only for the American to battle back, clinched when Williams hit a volley long in the next game.
