Angelique Kerber is very comfortable in Miami. Perhaps this is also due to the spectacular sunsets that can be seen in Sunshine State. However, the amateur photographer is currently not coming to take pictures of her favourite motif – the focus is on the tournament. On Monday evening, local time, the round of 16 will be played by Chinese player Yafan Wang. Nevertheless, Kerber still had time to give an insight into her daily tournament routine and her preparations.
There are the beautiful spots on the tour – and there are the particularly beautiful ones. In Miami, this sun-drenched Atlantic melting pot, life pulsates. The professionals will feel this again these days.
On the off-shore island of Key Biscayne, this thrilling wave of hectic activity, general cheerfulness and special serenity is ebbing away a little. But this unique character is also omnipresent in Crandon Park, the venue of the high-carat tournament, which cost 7.97 million dollars.
Angelique Kerber, currently the best player in terms of match victories in 2018 (24 wins – including the Hopman Cup), has taken a liking to Miami’s fascinating and sometimes strenuous mentality in the course of her professional years. This is also due to the fact that the 30-year-old has matured enormously in her personality and has become more open to many things.
These days she documented her daily routine for the first time as part of a takeover campaign. And made no secret of the fact that when sweating on the ergometer at the crack of dawn, a croissant and a coffee would not have been wrong. With a wink, of course. At least the view and the weather were right. The sun shone over the skyscrapers of South Florida. Of course.
On the drive to the complex, how could it be otherwise, the car radio Will Smith could play his popular song for the best – the refrain: “Welcome to Miami – Bienvenidos a Miami”. The perfect overture before “das Büro” opened for Kerber: The court on which their coach Wim Fissette asked for training. Observed by the way by Physio André Kreidler, who recently accompanied the German ice hockey cracks on their Olympic silver coup in Pyeongchang.
Before dinner with the team, the left-hander had a special appointment. Make-up and hairstyling included. In the context of the planned TV documentary “Unraveling Athena”, Kerber reported on her very personal path to becoming the number one.
Speaking of the way: After the tournament in Sunshine State the world ranking tenth up to the Fed Cup match against Czech Republic (21/22. April) and prepare herself more intensively than ever before for the clay court season, in which she has relatively little to defend.
In 2017, Kerber failed at the French Open as well as in Stuttgart and Rome at the opening hurdle and lost in Madrid in the round of 16. In recent years, after the Premier Mandatory tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami, she had still competed in Charleston or Monterrey.