Germany’s Angelique Kerber kisses the trophy in a Porsche 718 Boxster Cabrio, the winner’s prize, after defeating Germany’s Laura Siegemund (unseen) in the final of the WTA Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, southwestern Germany, on April 24, 2016.
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Kerber is ranked third in the world at present although her victory in the Australian Open in January has raised expectations for the year ahead.
In contrast, this was the very first WTA semi-final of Siegemund’s career but she played like a champion, climbing her way back into the contest after being 1-3 down in the first set. “I was running and trying to fight for every point but she was coming with great ss”. And the German tennis star did just that, a forehand victor to set up two set points.
Siegemund followed up her first-round upset of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to secure a third-round meeting with Italian sixth seed Roberta Vinci. “I have learned to play freely and enjoy and I never want that have [that] taken away again. This is the attitude I’ll take to Paris”, said Kerber.
“There are new and young players who have nothing to lose and want to beat me”.
The second set was pretty much even until the tenth game during which Kerber finally caved in to the enormous pressure of the Kvitova returns and the match was one set apiece. Like after [a] few games at the beginning I just start to feel my rhythm.
It was nonetheless a stellar week for the 28-year-old veteran, who will bound up almost 30 spots to a career-high ranking of No.42; more importantly, she leapfrogs four of her compatriots to become the No. 4 German woman on the WTA rankings – putting her in pole position to round out the national team who can be sent to the upcoming Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. We can understand the desire to appear for the home fans and put on a good show, but with a gap of less than 3000 points between World Nos.
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Angelique Kerber has made it clear she’s after glory in all of the Grand Slams this year and also hopes to pick up Olympic gold in Rio.
