US Open: Angelique Kerber: The “funny” game as a wake-up call

Angelique Kerber played well, missed two match points, lost her line – and still fought her way into the third round of the US Open. Perhaps the tremulous victory is a good omen…

Wim Fissette first inflated his cheeks quite a lot in the stands of Arthur Ashe Stadium – and then he relieved the air. Even the usually quiet, relaxed Belgian was not completely unaffected by the US Open thriller, the little three-set drama with his boss, the Wimbledon winner Angelique Kerber.

House high 6:2 and 5:2 led, two match points seved, then badly collapsed and just saved over the finish line: The Kerber trembling game in the second round against the Swede Johanna Larsson, who won 6:2, 5:7, 6:4 in a real roller coaster ride – that was not for the faint-hearted.

“Somehow I always have this weird game in Grand Slams,” Kerber said afterwards. And indeed: Only recently, during her biggest career triumph on the green tennis courts of the All England Club in southwest London, the second round duel with the young American Claire Liu was extremely bumpy, at that time Kerber even had to make up for a 0:1 set deficit.

In Wimbledon, Kerber and trainer Fissette had sat down after that murky performance and fought hard manoeuvre criticism – under the clear premise: Only with more courage, courage and aggressiveness is it possible to win the title. The motto should not be much different now either: Because against the rebellious Swede, Kerber meanwhile fell into old patterns of behaviour, playing too passive, restrained and anxious.

She left the complete direction to her opponent, only seemed like the supporting actress on the big stage. “I’ve practically retired from the game. And leave the booklet of action to her,” Kerber later said self-critically, “this must not and should not be repeated.

Especially not in the third round against the Slovakian temperament bolt, the unpredictable Dominika Cibulkova. The wiry girl is in for a heat. And “quite loud”, as Kerber said: “She is already pushing herself extraordinarily on the court. You have to hold it hard.”

Kerber leads 7-5 in a direct comparison, her worst defeat against the 29-year-old bundle of energy she experienced almost two years ago, in the final of the WTA World Championship in Singapore. But before Wimbledon at the Eastbourne tournament, Kerber had the last word this season, winning 6-3 and 6-3.

“It’ll be one of those games you train and work hard for. I have to be more aggressive again, take the initiative,” says Kerber.