WTA: Kerber:”I’m happy to be playing again now.”

Angelique Kerber wins and wins and wins. After a two-match win against the world number five Karolina Pliskova from the Czech Republic, the player from Kiel will meet the Ukrainian Elina Svitolina on Friday.

From Jörg Allmeroth from Dubai

Angelique Kerber also looked back in the days of Dubai. On the time before the first tournament in 2017, on the preparation for the Australian competitions:”No matter how good you feel in training. You may have done a good job,”said Kerber,”but you don’t know where you really stand. In spite of everything, there was great uncertainty.”

In the meantime, Kerber sees things more clearly, she herself, but also all those who observe and accompany her – and of course the dear competition. Kerber, no doubt, has returned to the top of her sport. She is ready and ready for the maximum prices to be distributed in the travelling circus of the pros. She herself says it’s good to have “the security back in the game.”

The security in the actual game. But also the security in mind, the knowledge to be able to master even difficult and hard challenges. And the certainty that hard training sessions and readjustments have manifested themselves with astonishing precision in some strokes. In the quarter-finals won 6:4 and 6:3 against Czech Karolina Pliskova at the Dubai Duty Free Championships, it was all symbolically clear: Kerber played more agile, creative and concentrated than her nominally higher-rated rival.

And almost like an ironic note, it seemed that it was against the powerful server Pliskova that Kerbers strongly improved serve, which ultimately decided this game. After an early 1-0 break at least in the second set, the 30-year-old German defended this advantage resolutely to the finish line, not even a breakball allowed her to do so,”The service was the key to victory,”she later said. Even beyond the day, this tournament remains to be noted: Kerber’s earlier deficit, the weak, not very dynamic serve, has evaporated, the willingness to work on an elementary part of the game, even late in his career, has more than paid off.

Kerber will now face the Ukrainian Elina Svitolina in the semi-final in Dubai as last year. The fun-loving youngster was something like the early spoilsport for Kerber last season, Svitolina steered Kerbers work in the wrong direction several times. In Brisbane as well as in Dubai and later again in the Fed Cup against Ukraine, Kerber went down as the loser. But 2017 is 2017, ticked off for Kerber, forgotten and over, what matters is the moment, the look forward also.

“I really put away the last year. As if I’ve closed a door,”says Kerber,”I’m just happy with the way I’m playing now. In any case, the balance sheet speaks for itself. 15:2 wins so far in this game series. The tournament win in Sydney, the semi-final at the Australian Open. If you add the Hopman Cup to that, it’s 19-2 successes. And now there might be a second cup triumph here in Dubai in 2018, which wouldn’t surprise you, as Kerber has become calculable again. But for better reasons, now again.