Angelique Kerber has upset Serena Williams 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to win the Australian Open title, ending the six-time champion’s unbeaten streak in finals at Melbourne Park. She defeated Serena Williams 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 for her first title in tennis Grand Slam competition.
Advertisement
Undeterred, the underdog retained her cool to break Williams to love and surge to a 2-0 lead with a flurry of explosive forehand winners.
The Australian Open win counts as Kerbers first major title, and she is also the first German woman to win since Graf in 1999.
But Williams finds her rhythm in the second, and now has a break opportunity. Right now the Germans are on the right path to make tennis more popular again – with the grand slam title from me and we have so many good players.
“Maybe it’s the second”, she said, when asked if it felt like a new career was beginning, adding that she had proven herself not just by beating Williams but also two-time champion Victoria Azarenka in the quarter-finals.
“When I played here the first round I was match point down and playing with one leg on the plane to Germany”, an emotional Kerber said in a courtside interview.
“I mean, every time I walk in this room, everyone expects me to win every single match, every single day of my life”, Williams said in her post-match news conference. “I remember her serving really well and from then on out I’ve been really focused that she’s someone that I and everyone has to take so seriously”, Williams said”.
The win brings Kerber to the semi-finals of a major championship for the first time since the U.S. Open in 2011.
As she has done so many times in the past, Williams fought back and when she levelled the match, it looked as if she would race through the third.
“Angie, congratulations. You did so well, you really deserved it. You played the best in the tournament, so let me be the first to congratulate you”, said Serena graciously.
Kerber played some brilliant counter-attacking tennis but her opponent was also well below her best. In Melbourne, she lost the chance to equal Steffi Graf’s 22 Grand Slams, coincidentally stopped by her compatriot.
But it was only appropriate that it would be another German, Angelique Kerber, who would deny the American great those two records by winning one the match. This was Murray’s third consecutive major final, having lost in last year’s Wimbledon and US Open finals with Australia’s John Peers.
“Here it was like that, I was trying to believe much more in myself”.
It spelled the end of the road as Kerber held her nerve to win her first Grand Slam and collapsed to the floor in delight when Williams put another volley long. She had an attitude that I think a lot of people can learn from.
Advertisement
“You never know how you’re going to perform in your first Grand Slam and no one really felt that she was going to be a Grand Slam champion, but the women’s game keeps throwing up [surprise winners]”.
