Angelique Kerber has kept her chance to make it into the preliminary round at the WTA finals in Singapore thanks to a good performance. Two days after her opening defeat in the “Red Group”, the Wimbledon winner defeated the US Open Champion Filly Naomi Osaka (Japan) in a close exchange of blows with 6:4, 5:7, 6:4.
After almost 2:30 hours Kerber turned her first match ball in the city state’s sports hub and showed the winner’s fist. The world ranking second place is likely to have felt a great deal of satisfaction in addition to relief. It was a victory of morality after the disillusionment at the start of the “World Cup”.
On Monday, she had started the season finale with a 6-1, 3-6, 4-6 defeat of Kiki Bertens (Netherlands) with 7.0 million dollars and had to explain again and again how she was able to escape the game despite the set lead and a 2-0 lead in run two.
Kerber’s decision to make it to the semi-finals will now be made on Friday in their final group match against French Open finalist Sloane Stephens (USA). The Kielerin needs in any case a victory, in order to reach the preliminary round of the WTA Championships for the second time after 2016. Two years ago Kerber failed in the final against Dominika Cibulkova (Slovakia).
As a reaction to the unsuccessful start to the tournament, Kerber had demanded more consistency from himself than in the match against Bertens. There, after a bear-strong beginning, she had suddenly given up the book of action and could no longer find her way back to the director’s chair.
The signs were good, because against Osaka, coached by the Munich Sascha Bajin, “Angie” had won three out of four comparisons – the last, by the way, in the third round of Wimbledon. The end is known.
However, while Kerber’s historic victory in the grass court Mecca in July was followed by a 6-5 win, Osaka’s 7-2 success following their US Open Coup was a notable achievement. In other words, the 21-year-old arrived in Singapore with a strong form and full of self-confidence.
“Her limit is heaven,” said icon Billie Jean King on Wednesday at a press conference about Osaka. However, the start of her first WTA Championships did not go as planned: Osaka lost against Stephens 5:7, 6:4, 1:6.
Kerber, however, appeared very focused from the start in her second group game. She moved well, acted aggressively and returned strongly. After two early breaks to zero in the first two games, the left-handed player added to her game and became the first player to serve for the 3-1 lead. Until then she had allowed herself just three unforced mistakes, especially with the forehand Kerber scored again and again.
Osaka’s performance, however, fluctuated. In the middle of the first set, the 21-year-old was at times so frustrated that she briefly put the bat out of her hand and puffed up next to the linesman at the front of the court. Kerber was not impressed and continued to cleverly vary his own service.
In her pits, apart from coach Wim Fissette, who was fired last week, everyone else was sitting who had been there for her Wimbledon triumph. Among others Mama Beata, Physio André Kreidler and Manager Aljoscha Throne.
At 5:4, Kerber had to endure some more anxious moments, but she remained calm and fended off three break chances for the Japanese player. Not least because the three-time Grand Slam winner remained the more active player.
Symptomatic: Kerber worked out the point to the first set point with a backhand winning stroke. After 47 minutes of playing she let a serve winner follow.
In the second run, however, Osaka came better out of the starting blocks and initially took the initiative. The reward: A 2:0 or 3:1 leadership. But Kerber’s intensity returned, it remained positive – a good mix for the success, which initially came about.
Osaka brought Sascha Bajin to the On-Court-Coaching again, but the number four of the world seemed tired. At a score of 5:4 and his own serve, there was a lot to be said for the German. Actually. But with the courage of despair, the New York Champion Filly risked everything – and hit everything. Kerber finished the set with a forehand mistake and Osaka won 14 of the last 16 points.
After a long season, both players had to go to their physical limits in the decision process. Kerber took Osaka’s serve to his own 4-3 lead – and then fended off two break chances of the Bajin protégé. The Kielerin rewarded herself a little later with the victory, which lets her dream of the semi-finals.