Porsche Tennis Grand Prix: No turnaround after the FedCup knockout: German debacle in Stuttgart

The Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart had nothing good in store for the German players. Angelique Kerber, Julia Görges and Co. had to sail early.

The German tennis fans had liked to get used to the beautiful final picture. In 2015 and 2016 Angelique Kerber won the Stuttgart Porsche Grand Prix with all the fighting force, tenacity and passion she could muster, and twice she radiantly raised the winner’s trophy.

In 2017 the German festival continued undiminished, but with a rather unlikely Sand Queen – with the tricky local hero Laura Siegemund, who turned a long nose at the assembled world elite. A German title hat-trick, it was also something like the highlight of the new German Fräulein miracle on the biggest national stage.

Statistically speaking, the situation before the Stuttgart tennis festivals this year was even better and more comfortable. Siegemund, the defending champion, came home a few weeks after her comeback and ten months before due to a cruciate ligament rupture.

But Kerber and Julia Görges, the 2011 winner, were actually ready to take part in the title race again, in exquisite positions in the world rankings, Görges in 11th place after their rousing upswing, Kerber in 12th place again after a strong performance consolidation. “I have a lot of faith in them,” said DTB women’s head Barbara Rittner before the tournament, “both players certainly wanted to compensate for the disappointments against the Czech Republic in the Fed Cup semi-final.

But when the opening phase of the top-class tournament was over on Thursday, the top German players and their fans were suddenly left empty-handed. No German player remained in the qualifying matches, even the quarter-finals went on without national representatives of interests, without Görges, without Kerber, even without Siegemund.

Görges had already cashed a somewhat inexplicable bankruptcy on Wednesday, the only player who had temporarily been able to convince at the Fed Cup lost her first round match against the Czech Marketa Vondrousova without any bite or rhythm. Görges later spoke of a “lesson”, she also meant it quite literally: “I still have to learn to cope with the fact that I now have more obligations than before, many dates besides the actual matches”.

Kerber, who had lost out to Görges on Monday evening in a tiebreak show spectacle in the final, finally experienced a bitter farewell in Stuttgart. At first, the former world number one had compensated for the disillusionment at the Fed Cup with a revenge against Petra Kvitova in the WTA tournament.

But 24 hours later, after this remarkable and courageous performance comeback, Kerber unfortunately seemed to have changed again. She only played on the Centre Court for 38 minutes before giving up at 0:6 and 0:2 against Estonian Annett Kontaveit for a painful thigh injury. Afterwards, the 30-year-old from Kiel asked herself whether it had made sense to play at all, but immediately gave herself the emotional answer: “I couldn’t get over it not to compete here in Stuttgart. I wouldn’t have gone out at any other tournament.”

In contrast to Görges and Kerber, who, in addition to the bitter Fed Cup failure, also had the tournament frustration from Stuttgart in their luggage, Siegemund’s balance was conciliatory. In the first two matches on a higher level since the comeback mission the Metzingerin indicated that she is already to be reckoned with as an unrest factor, as a threat to the tour’s establishment.

After winning the first round against Czech Barbora Strycova, Siegemund also shocked US Open semi-finalist Coco Vandeweghe before the local heroine’s forces died out at the end of the three-set match. “I’m both disappointed and happy. I would have wished for more games here, but my performance was right. This gives a boost for the coming weeks,” said the 30-year-old. Siegemund, at least she, could still feel like a winner even as a loser.