Early in what would become a tight test of a U.S. Open final, Angelique Kerber sprinted forward to somehow reach a drop shot and scoop a down-the-line victor that landed in a corner of the court.
Advertisement
Serena is on the brink of turning 35 and still remains stuck on 22 career Open-Era Grand Slam titles and in a tie with Steffi Graf.
Germany’s Angelique Kerber claimed her second Grand Slam title of the year with a three-sets win over Karolina Pliskova in the US Open. I give her a world of credit for her entire year.
Hence, Kerber knew what she was up against, and she came up with an incredible performance in the first set to clinch it 6-3. “And now here, five years later I’m standing here with the trophy”.
She had never made it to a final in 32 Grand Slam appearances, and three-and-a-half years had elapsed since the German even advanced to the semifinals at such an event.
“For me everything started here in 2011”, she added, referring to when she made the semi-finals ranked No.92. Kerber got broken early in the third and bounced her racket off the court.
“I was really trying to improving a lot of things”, Kerber said. I will try to take this challenge because it will be a little bit of a new situation for me.
Kerber won 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in an epic final clash at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York’s Flushing Meadows.
“It didn’t look good”, Beltz said about the deficit. She had also finished second to Serena Williams at Wimbledon, reports Efe.
Now she has won two major titles, defeating Serena Williams to win the Australian Open in January and then winning in NY by knocking out Pliskova. When Williams was beaten by Pliskova in the semifinals, it assured that No. 2 Kerber would displace Williams as No. 1 in the world, a ranking she has held for 186 weeks.
Pliskova beat Kerber in the final at Cincinnati almost three weeks ago for a breakthrough title for the 24-year-old Czech, and she’s been riding that momentum ever since. It will be fascinating to see how the American responds to the threat of Kerber, who has shown that she has real staying power. Her powerful groundstrokes had Kerber on the back foot at times but in the end, 47 unforced errors were too much to overcome despite her 40 winners.
Pliskova committed 17 unforced errors alone in that first set.
“Maybe it’s time changing and different players are coming up”, Pliskova said.
“With Angie, you can not wait for mistakes”, Pliskova said. 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.
But Pliskova hung in there.
Advertisement
There were plenty of lengthy exchanges in that first set, and Kerber tended to get the better of them, winning 9 of 14 points that lasted at least 10 strokes.
