Angelique Kerber became the first German since Steffi Graf to win a Grand Slam title, beating the world No.1, Serena Williams in the final of the Australian Open.
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At the start of 2016, Kerber was the 10th-ranked tennis player in the world – a fine talent prone to underachievement in the biggest matches.
The No. 4-seeded team of Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares took out the defending champions Thursday to advance to the U.S. Open men’s doubles final, where they will face unseeded Pablo Carreno Busta and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
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.
Kerber was more composed and in the same game she seized the break when Pliskova’s drop-shot drifted wide.
The German had a celebratory swim in Melbourne’s Yarrow River after her breakthrough slam but has nothing planned should she add the U.S. Open crown.
Gael Monfils has come to play, suddenly, while Novak Djokovic is getting his left shoulder massaged, as they head to a fourth set in their unusual U.S. Open semifinal.
“After Australia I had so many things to deal with”, Kerber said.
Her serve is a weakness: She was broken while serving for the match against Wozniacki, for example, and lost three service games in the first set alone of her quarterfinal against 2015 runner-up Roberta Vinci. Although it was a distraction, she said Pliskova earned her victory.
“I’m a little disappointed not to win today, but at the end of the day it’s been a good tournament, something I can be proud of”, said the Danish player.
“It’s just wonderful”, a misty-eyed Kerber said afterward.
The left-handed Kerber already was assured of making her debut at No. 1 in the WTA rankings on Monday, ending Serena Williams’ record-tying 186-week stay at the top.
For two years in a row she has faced an underdog in the semi-finals of her home Grand Slam event knowing that she was on the verge of creating history.
Kerber lost her first set of the tournament against a player who beat her soundly a few weeks ago.
Pliskova advances to her first major final.
The German leads Pliskova 4-3 in their head to heads, but the Czech won their most recent meeting in the Cincinnati final last month.
Pliskova until this week had never played beyond the third round of a grand slam.
This was the 33rd major semifinal of Williams’ career, and the first for Pliskova, who beat the 34-year-old American’s older sister Venus in the fourth round after staving off a match point.
Kerber won the first set of Saturday’s U.S. Open final 6-3 over Karolina Pliskova.
The tall Czech settled down and held a pair of break points in the fourth game but Germany’s Australian Open victor held serve helped by a pair of groundstroke errors by Pliskova.
Kerber was out of the blocks quickly, and four winners from the second seed coupled with four unforced errors from her opponent was the recipe for two breaks and a 3-0 lead that grew to 4-0. She made 31 unforced errors in all.
The No. 2-seeded Kerber trailed by a break at 3-1 in the third set before taking five of the last six games against a fading Pliskova, who was seeded 10th and hadn’t been past the third round at a major until this tournament.
Angelique Kerber reached the second round of a Grand Slam for the first time at the 2008 Australian Open.
“I don’t know what you want to hear”, Kerber said with a smile, graciously deflecting the question with the same ease she shows in blasting a forehand back at an opponent.
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The lanky, 24-year-old Czech said that with her mounting confidence, and big serve, she can go all the way.
