“It’s just incredible what I did this year”, Kerber said.
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Kerber, who defeated Czech Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 to add the NY crown to the one she claimed in January in Melbourne, now plans a two-week tennis break.
Never a Grand Slam finalist before 2016, Kerber beat Williams for the Australian Open title in January, then lost to the American in the Wimbledon final in July.
She trailed by a break at 3-1 in the third set before taking five of the last six games against 10th seed Pliskova, who had not been past the third round at a major until this tournament.
The youngster was unable to push forward, however, given that Kerber soon broke back and produced a vital hold of her own to make it 4-3 as the tension rose in NY.
Faced with the challenge, Kerber admitted she was “a little negative” in the second set.
12 de septiembre de 2016, 14:20London, Sep 12 (Prensa Latina) German female tennis star Angelique Kerber replaced USA player Serena Williams as the one with the first place of the female tennis world ranking Monday.
Djokovic, playing in his 21st major singles final and seventh in NY, was quickest out of the blocks to take the first set.
Pliskova said that the fact Kerber is left-handed was also a key factor in the way the final played out. Her defense is exemplary, scrambling along the baseline to put her racket on seemingly every ball, crouching so low that her knees would come close to scraping the ground.
Her powerful groundstrokes had Kerber on the run at times, but her 47 unforced errors were, finally, too much to overcome despite her 40 winners. Because I was a lot of hours on the practice courts, sweating and everything, and you are just playing for this moment to being on the center court in the final and with the unbelievable crowd.
Kerber had advanced to her maiden US Open final shortly after becoming the world’s top-ranked player for the first time, defeating Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 6-3 on Friday in a semi-final battle of two of the best retrievers and movers on the WTA Tour. And to being No1, of course now everybody will try to beat me and have nothing to lose.
“In the second set, my body language was not the best”.
But Pliskova hung in there.
Angelique Kerber (GER) poses with the trophy after her match against Karolina Pliskova (CZE) on day thirteen of the 2016 US Open tennis tournament at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. But the crowd at the Arthur Ashe Stadium was clearly on her side and with that support she rallied and started nailing big forehands as she took the second set 6-4.
Now it was a match, filled with terrific points, tense moments and plenty of emotion.
The second seed came into the finals with huge confidence, without dropping a single set.
Pliskova, 24, had never been beyond the third round at a major before, but her run in NY included wins over both Williams sisters. Angelique’s dad Slawomir is Polish and her mom Beata is German. Subsequently she announced that she was pregnant and due to give birth at the end of the year, and intends to be back next season at some point.
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Injury or not, Williams surrendered her No. 1 ranking and Kerber has no intentions of giving it up. She will consistently be known as one of the greatest to ever play the game, but she is able to raise from the ashes, a new and more improved person.
