As a result, she has now pinned her career as the greatest late rise in history.
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But Kerber had many goals on her racquet and she had satisfied all of them, by being the first German to win the U.S. Open, grabbing the number one ranking from Serena by winning over Caroline Wozniacki plus winning her second Grand Slam title in a year; her first being at the Australian Open away from her opponent Serena Williams.
“When I was a kid”, Kerber said after the match. “When I was a kid I was always dreaming to be the No. 1 player in the world, to win Grand Slams and today is the day I won my second Grand Slam, especially here in NY”.
Never a Grand Slam finalist before 2016, Kerber beat Williams for the Australian Open title in January, then was runnerup to her at Wimbledon.
Kerber won 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in an epic final clash at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York’s Flushing Meadows. “I was just trying to take the challenge”. A little bit before the match I felt nervous, but I think that’s normal.
The second seed, made a spirited comeback after being a break down in the third set to beat the big serving 10th-seeded Czech 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
“It didn’t look good”, Beltz said about the deficit. “I took it, so I think this was really the shot of the match from my serve”. It will be fascinating to see how the American responds to the threat of Kerber, who has shown that she has real staying power. She lost against Karolína Plíšková, stopping her bid for a 23rd Grand Slam victory and losing her ranking of number one in the world, ranking second in the world now.
Three weeks ago in Cincinnati, Pliskova carved up Kerber in the final 6-3, 6-1.
But at the outset of this final, it was Kerber who was in charge. We all know she’s tough to play and she’s putting so many balls back.
Pliskova hits a new career high of sixth after her run in NY, while former number one Caroline Wozniacki is back in the top 30 at 29th after reaching the last four.
Djokovic, playing in his 21st major singles final and seventh in NY, was quickest out of the blocks to take the first set. Hopefully there will be many more finals to come. You can not do much from it. “She doesn’t give you anything”.
And add the fact that with her win, Kerber became richer by $3.5 million-equal to that of Swiss Stan Wawrinka’s purse after the Swiss’s marathon 4-hour, 4-set victory over Novak Djokovic in the men’s final.
Wawrinka is the oldest victor of the men’s tournament since 35-year-old Ken Rosewall in 1970, and the first over 30 to take the title since Pete Sampras in 2002.
But Pliskova hung in there. Kerber took advantage of Pliskova’s big-match nerves – evidenced by a couple of misses at the net – to break in the opening game.
Now it was a match, filled with terrific points, tense moments and plenty of emotion. Kerber got broken early in the third and bounced her racket off the court. She has dual citizenship of Germany and Poland but really considers herself German. Angelique Kerber won 12 of 16 (75%) first serve points against Pliskova, who trailed her significantly with a woefully inadequate 9 of 17 (53%) performance.
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“Right now I don’t know if she has messaged me because my phone is somewhere, so I don’t know how many messages I have now”.
