No. 7-seeded Kerber had never played in a Grand Slam final and had lost five of her six career meetings with Williams, but she responded with a stunning 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 upset win over the six-time Australian Open champion.
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Sure, there were questions about Williams before the tournament started; she had a long layoff after losing in the US Open semifinals and falling short of the calendar Slam and withdrew from the Hopman Cup with a knee injury.
The 28-year-old German then played superb defensive tennis against the powerful Williams, scrambling to force her to play an extra shot that ultimately contributed to 23 unforced errors from the American in the first set. My whole life I was winning so hard and now I can say that I’m a Grand Slam champion… it sounds so insane.
Kerber, for her part, said she was happy to enjoy the moment and the only goal she pointed out on Saturday was a simple one: “To win some more”.
Kerber denied Williams her record-equalling 22nd Grand Slam title in claiming her first.
Kerber had a chance to serve for the match at 5-3 in the third but couldn’t hold. Let me be the first to congratulate you.
“I was not believing too much in myself”, she said.
The first left-hander to win in Melbourne since Monica Seles’s 1999 championship, Kerber proved the world number one can be beaten, even when fit and firing. I get the second chance and I take my chance.
The crowning moment came when the American failed to put the ball away and as Kerber drove a half-volley pass into the gap, the crowd rose to their feet and the German pointed her finger up to the sky.
Kerber, she said, had definitely improved, while the leftie element added another degree to the difficulty.
Despite a rash of uncharacteristic unforced errors, Williams made Kerber push all the way by breaking back when the German player was serving for the match.
“I was with one leg in the plane for Germany”, she said of almost going out in the first round.
“The best two weeks of my life, of my career, was here”. Today, however, she had 46 unforced errors and clearly wasn’t herself all match.
“After the first round, I was like OK, now I have nothing to lose”, she told reporters after beating top seed Serena Williams 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in Saturday’s final.
Last year, she got to hit with Graf.
“Obviously, yeah. I was missing a lot off the ground, coming to the net”. “She told me after that she’s really happy for me and that I really deserved it. So you saw that she is really, really a great person”.
She was also the first woman to win the title after being knocked out in the first round the previous year since Kerry Melville Reid in 1977.
“I knew before that I beat her once in Cincinnati, that I really must go out there to try to beat her again because she will not give it to me”.
“I think sometimes I am really not easy but I have the best family and the best team in the world…”
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Before Graf retired that year, she and Williams played twice.
