The tennisnet.com editorial staff picks out their candidates for the Player of the Year on the ATP and WTA Tour. We’ll start with the ladies. Today: Angelique Kerber.
Wim Fissette is a man with a clear opinion. That’s why we’re simply assuming that the Belgian will stick to the forecast he made last summer after leaving “Team Kerber”: “We haven’t even seen the best Angie.”
But the tennis world already saw an Angie in 2018, who managed the turnaround after a disappointing 2017 season and despite some prophecies of doom from the critics. And in her own inimitable way.
The evidence of her famous comeback, the sweetest cherry on a cake, can be found in the 30 year old’s living room at home: The Venus Rosewater Dish, this most desirable trophy in women’s tennis that only Wimbledon winners get.
Kerber has achieved her sporting immortality on this 14 July, a sunny Saturday afternoon in London. On the world’s most famous Centre Court, in the lawn Mecca on Church Road SW 19, in the venerable All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club – AELTC for short.
The dimension of this clear final victory over 23-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams (6:3, 6:3) was also clear when looking into the Kerber box. Mother Beata, a pleasantly modest representative of her guild and always emotionally calm, could no longer hold back the tears. And the blonde woman with the pageboy’s head even seemed a bit more touched than at her daughter’s major coup at the US Open in September 2016 in the Big Apple.
Boris Becker, almost rooted in the grass fields of Wimbledon, joined in with the following cheering choir – and in a rather original way: “We have to share our living room now!! Steffi, Michael and I…maybe we should enlarge it a bit,” twittered the three-time London champ.
For Kerber, that afternoon a circle closed on the island. She was rewarded for her courage in reinventing herself. She, who actually prefers to cling to old habits, which until then felt much more comfortable when she could follow well-trodden paths.
Exactly this Angelique Kerber decided after her weak season 2017 with 29:24 wins (2018: 46:19 successes) to change her coach. Thrust reverser. Jumping over one’s own shadow, out of the comfort zone – and up to unsafe terrain, which in the end provided the space for new flights of fancy.
Her coach of many years, Torben Beltz, who had already coached her in her youth and led her to the Grand Slam triumphs in Melbourne and New York, replaced Wim Fissette in December 2017, who also brought a new fitness coach (Rob Brandsma) into the team.
Pure change for the passionate “creature of habit”, which in many restaurants around the world does not deviate from “their” tried and tested “tribal dish”.
But Kerber mastered the task with flying colours. In the first 14 matches of the past season she remained undefeated – before she lost as number 21 on the seed list in a semi-final thriller with the Australian Open industry leader Simona Halep only wafer-thin in three sets.
Characteristic: The 2:20-hour exchange of blows was awarded as the best Grand Slam match 2018. A bitter defeat that didn’t knock over the German number one. On the contrary. The following months are long (sports) history.
What can speak against a reigning Wimbledon queen, who started the season as number 21 – and will start the new year as world runner-up? There was occasional criticism of the Kielerin’s balance after her most valuable major success to date. Seven victories were opposed by seven defeats. Whatever. The Venus Rosewater Dish is the best answer to all annoying questions!