No breathing space for Angelique Kerber and Julia Görges: After the “Manic Monday”, on which all 16 round of 16 men’s and women’s finals were traditionally held in Wimbledon, the two Fed Cup team-mates will continue on Tuesday. They are still two victories away from a German final. The dream is alive, but above all Görges doesn’t want to know anything about it for a while.
By Ulrike Weinrich from Wimbledon
The answer was hard to beat in terms of clarity. “Not at all,” said Julia Görges, when the question arose how much she was already thinking about a possible Wimbledon final against her Fed Cup team mate Angelique Kerber. With their deliberately concise statement, Görges nipped any further discussion about the first possible German women’s final in London’s grass court Mecca since 1931 in the bud.
And the 29-year-old knew exactly why she did it. On the Women’s Tour, the international pecking order has gotten very confused. Kerber and Görges are number one and three of the remaining eight pros in the world rankings for the most important title in the tennis universe and the £2.25 million winner’s cheque.
Suddenly both Germans, who also get along very well outside the court, belong to the allerengsten favorite circle. But Görges warned on the home stretch at Church Road against daring number games. “I don’t think the ranking means much anymore, because every player sees her chance – and works hard. That’s why everything has become more open”, explained the 13th World Rankings from Bad Oldesloe, who curiously managed her first quarter-final entry at a Grand Slam tournament on the grass, which she so unloved for many years. “This,” she confessed, “I didn’t expect.”
Against the two-time Nuremberg winner Kiki Bertens (WTA No. 20), Görges is the supposed favourite in paper form. But what does that mean in these crazy times? She lost the two duels with the Dutch woman so far, but they took place on sand. “It’s a great opportunity for all of us. I know Kiki well, we sometimes go out to dinner together,” said “Jule”.
Kerber, however, did not want to displace the idea of a second German women’s final in the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC) after 87 years. “It is possible in any case,” said the left-hander before she quickly returned to the present: “It’s nice for German tennis and for both of us that we are in the quarter-finals. We are happy for each other.”
Kerber will play for the second time on Tuesday in the current tournament on the Centre Court, in this lush green theatre of dreams. The fact that she has reached at least the quarter-finals in all major seasons to date in 2018 is “a confirmation” that she is on the right track again after last year of epidemics. “But,” she stressed, “I know I can still improve.”
Angie” actually has good memories of her next opponent Daria Kasatkina (No. 14). Only at the preparation tournament in Eastbourne did Kerber defeat the 21-year-old Russian in the quarter-finals – in the third set tiebreak. The overall balance is balanced (3:3). “I know what’s coming. She changes rhythm more often, and I have to try to find my own. From the beginning,” the two-time Grand Slam winner described her tactics.
These days, Kerber is again driving well with her leitmotif: “Think from point to point. “You have to train on that, but with me it helps.” Just like Belinda Bencic in the round of 16, when the US Open winner of 2016 defended four set points for the Swiss. The Houdini qualities have long since returned to the 30-year-old.