Slawomir Kerber’s little girl always wanted to be the best tennis player in the world.
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The second-seeded Angelique Kerber beat the Karolina Pliskova to claim the title of the 136th edition of US Open.
New world number one Angelique Kerber won her second grand slam tournament of the year by beating Czech player Karolina Pliskova in the final of the US Open.
Nonetheless, Kerber has emerged as a legitimate rival to the 34-year-old’s dominance, having become the first woman, apart from Williams, to win two grand slams in a calendar year since Justine Henin in 2007.
For now, she will have to time to reflect on her recent experiences which included a United States television breakfast-show appearance alongside Hollywood star Patrick Dempsey and Italian film icon Sophia Loren.
That it would happen at Flushing Meadows is fitting.
“Last year I was sitting at home, making my preparation and my goals were to be playing better in the big tournaments, especially in the majors”. She’s a great champion as well. Kerber embraced the big stadiums, the boisterous crowds, the notion she belonged on those stages. Also, how I was dealing with the pressure when I came here and everybody was asking me about the No. 1 number, actually.
Not that everything went smoothly those five years in between.
Overall, though, let’s take a minute to appreciate Kerber’s season: victor at the Australian Open, runner-up at Wimbledon, silver medalist at the Olympics, champion of the U.S. Open and, last but certainly not least, world #1.
And that run in Melbourne nearly never happened. Serving at 3-5, Pliskova double-faulted to give Kerber a set point, and the German smacked a running forehand up the line to capture the first set. You could see her collect herself, dig deep, and dip into an nearly super-human well of energy as Pliskova started to flag in the heat and the humidity.
Kerber said if you believe in your fitness, you believe in yourself. “That was a really special match”. “You have to go with a lot of patience”, she said. Kerber must have felt the worst but you are not No.1 for nothing more than these kinds of situations as she steeled herself to level at 3-3. The runner-up, who lost the final eight points of the match, said nerves had no impact on her at any stage during the final.
During her latest stretch of 186 weeks atop the rankings – a span that equalled another Graf record – Williams won seven Grand Slams and 24 titles overall.
With her plans for the rest of 2016 up in the air, Williams’s coach Patrick Mouratoglou acknowledged that a season with just two titles – even if one of them was Wimbledon – wasn’t up to the American’s standards.
The match on Saturday was stunning: A three-set contest in which momentum swung back and forth like a pendulum.
With Kerber slightly in the driving seat, both players produced some commanding tennis on their own serves as the game headed towards the end of the first set.
“I wanted to be No. 1 in the world and win Grand Slams”, Kerber said.
No one watching her Saturday could have ever imagined that.
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That younger generation, Navratilova said, was galvanized by Kerber’s victory over Williams in Melbourne, which was enough to spark a “collective confidence” among players long conditioned to think of Williams as unbeatable.
