Supremely level-headed on the court, Kerber is light-hearted off it, and her legion of social media fans delight in the selfies of Kerber dancing in the streets of NY or scuba diving in the Maldives.
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Faced with the challenge, Kerber admitted she was a little negative in the second set, but said she drew on the memory of her Australian Open triumph to will herself on, even after conceding the first break of the third set to fall behind 2-1.
Pliskova was also the first player to take a set off Kerber at this year’s US Open.
The first was a walk in the park for Kerber as it seemed the nerves of being in the final at Flushing Meadows had caught up with the power-serving 6-foot-1 Czech player. A silver medal in the singles category at the 2016 Rio Olympics asserted Kerber had announced her arrival on the big stage. Moments later, the German trailed 3-1. “I think I will show a few videos to my children in a few years”. The five-times grand slam champion Maria Sharapova has been sidelined on a two-year doping ban. Margaret Court is the all-time women’s leader with 24 major titles.
It has been a fairy tale year for Kerber, a 28-year-old German who has found her best tennis later than most athletes in this sport. She righted her ship for Wimbledon.
World number one Angelique Kerber describes the last two weeks as “incredible” after following up her Australian Open success with victory at the US Open. Garbine Muguruza, 22, topped Williams in the French Open final.
In that game, she had been down, 0-30, and held serve to lead, 4-3.
“To me, the biggest surprise was Serena had lost the two finals at slams and then a semifinal”, said former world No. 1 Martina Navratilova. Hopefully there will be many more finals to come.
And no, we’re not talking about Serena Williams. Quickly, Pliskova dragged her from sideline to sideline. “Younger players are coming up, which is normal. It’s always tough to play them”. “Great to see some other girls winning the title, not only the same person”.
“I’m not gonna think about losing, I could be the victor today”.
“It means a lot to me”, Kerber said.
“She’s really grown as a player”, Fernandez said. Kerber fell to the court in jubilation and was emotional when reflecting in her chair before the presentation.
Injury or not, Williams surrendered her No. 1 ranking and Kerber has no intentions of giving it up. “I don’t think Serena’s going anywhere but it gets more hard as the younger players come up”.
“Now everybody will try to beat me and have nothing to lose”. I have to be the one who is aggressive.
The match opened with Kerber breaking a jittery Pliskova and ended the same way, though for most part it was a very even contest. I knew that I have the game to beat the best players.
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“For me it’s really important to go on my own way and to have her in Germany with all the things she did for tennis, it’s just fantastic”. How do you become a champion after an entire career and an entire existence built on being the complete opposite of one?
