Big match – and a great start to the season for Angelique Kerber, who will be celebrated again by the international tennis scene.
Of course you should start with the most important thing, also after this game, after this memorable Grand Slam afternoon in Melbourne. The most important thing was: Angelique Kerber lost her semi-final at the Australian Open, 3:6,6:4 and 7:9 against world number one Simona Halep (Romania). A rerun of the miracle of 2016, then against Serena Williams, was thus off the table, a potentially third Grand Slam triumph.
But the most important thing doesn’t always have to be the decisive factor. Not if you say goodbye to one of the big tennis stages as Kerber did on 25. January 2018. Kerber went somewhat weak and tired into the match, after 13 minutes she was 0:5 behind, only five of the first 25 points went to the Germans. It would have been easy to draw an inner line under the Melbourne chapter.
But when Kerber, after two hours and twenty minutes, walked slightly grimly to the net to congratulate Halep on her victory, she was also a winner. That sounds like loser romance, like false pathos, but it was exactly right. After the best game of this tournament, the best game of the new season and one of the best games in recent tennis history, I ran until it didn’t work. Up to the last point,”said Kerber later, after the unworthy, crazy race to catch up,”I am of course disappointed. but proud of what I’ve done here.”
It was nothing less than total tennis, this spectacle game. An exchange of blows to bend and break. Often even literally to the point of falling over. Kerber and Halep showed aesthetics and athletics in a fight that reminded us of heavyweight boxes in the third, all-important act – with two stars who refused to throw in the towel again and again and again and again.”If a player gives everything, then you can’t be dissatisfied as a coach,” said Kerbers new coach, the Belgian Wim Fissette,”we’ll be happy with the results.
Instead of his boss, Halep could now try to crown herself as the Grand Slam Queen of Melbourne in a duel with the Danish Caroline Wozniacki. The starting position before the final was bizarre: Halep and Wozniacki are number 1 and number 2 in the world, but they both live with the malus not having won any of the four major tournaments in their careers. Whoever wins the final will also be number 1 in the ranking on Monday after the Australian Open.
One thing is also clear: it will be difficult to surpass the extraordinary class and drama of the semi-final between Kerber and Halep, this fierce, gruelling battle. A game in all its unpredictability in which you never knew where to go the next moment. 6:3 and 3:1 led Halep, Kerber balanced over the abyss, seemed beaten. But from then on, it really started with the wild par force hunt, with a memorable appearance of two top players, who gave nothing away – except for their scenery in the stadium and outside in the world, a match to remember and fall in love with – “women’s tennis can’t be better,”said the legendary American Chris Evert.
The size of this match developed because Kerber overcame her doubts and drowsiness late in the match. Just on her way to an early, bitter end, she suddenly took her heart in her hand again. Catched up, point by point, won the second set and even took the lead in the third round. But to let Halep pass again. The ups and downs were fascinating, enthralling, unnerving. At first Halep had two match points, but Kerber had something against the knockout, defended the victory points for the Romanian. Then the Germans themselves had two match points for the entry into their fourth Grand Slam finale at a lead of 6:5 and 40:15. I couldn’t do much else,”Kerber said afterwards about the missed opportunities,” she just played it well in this situation.
What followed was the finish. Halep went 7:6 in front, Kerber equalled again to 7:7. At a 7-8 deficit, the Kieler fought off Halep’s third match point, but then a backhand ball sailed from her to the end – it was over. Kerber was beaten, but it was a farewell without bitterness, grief and deep frustration. Kerber could leave Melbourne with his head up, after the first defeat in the fifteenth game of the season. It was a defeat that did not mean a setback in Kerbers comeback mission, but confirmed the uptrend. And fired the faith in himself once more.
Let’s give it a round of applause, when would it have been better than after this day, after this game.