WIMBLEDON WINNER ! The day after, Angelique Kerber still couldn’t believe it. When she did not enter the All England Lawn Tennis Club on Sunday noon in her summer dress and sneakers for the first time in the past two weeks, the pressure was completely off the 30-year-old.
By Ulrike Weinrich from Wimbledon
The schedule of the new Wimbledon winner was also packed the day after. The interview marathon continued unabated – and Kerber was also allowed to browse through the legendary clothing pool. Finally, on Sunday evening, the traditional Champion Dinner took place in the Guildhall of London.
“I felt like I tried on 50 dresses – and then I chose a simple one. Because that’s Wimbledon for me, not too much’blingbling’, but just a long dress,” said Kerber, who seemed relatively fit despite a nightly winners party with her team and family on Sunday.
She only returned to the rented house around 11.30 pm on Saturday evening. Afterwards we went for dinner to Soho House in London – later to the adjoining bar. “When I got home, it was maybe 4.00 or 4.30 a.m., it was getting light again,” said the 30-year-old.
Their own coup in the lawn mecca was not yet completely tangible for them even under the Sunday sun. She was totally happy anyway. “I still can’t realize what I did yesterday. I feel that everything is falling away from me. But I still need a few more days to understand that I won Wimbledon.”
Kerber had already dreamed of triumphing on Church Road as a little girl. “No matter what comes next, it’s a bonus,” stressed Angie, who had wished for three things in her career: winning Wimbledon – done since Saturday. The number one in the world will be completed – since September 2016. And win an Olympic medal – since Rio finished Janiero in October 2016.
And, of course, Steffi Graf, the last German to win the trophy called Venus Rosewater Dish at the world’s most important tournament before Kerber in 1996, also congratulated. “She wrote me that she followed it, that she rejoiced with me, that I should enjoy it and deserved it. It is always nice when a message comes from Steffi,” Kerber said about the message from the “Countess” who flashed on her smartphone in the middle of the other 200 messages.
On Monday noon Kerber will fly from the English metropolis to Poznan to have a barbecue in the evening in Puszczykowo with grandma and grandpa and the family. On Tuesday, a reception for the three-time Grand Slam winner will be held at the Porsche Museum Stuttgart. Then she wants to relax – and enjoy. Only at the hard court tournament in Montreal (starting August 6th) the new number four of the WTA ranking will start again.
And Kerber already knows that she will take more time between appointments and training than she did in 2016 after her successes. “This will be the key for the next few weeks. That I will use the time more for myself”, she announced.