WImbledon: How Angelique Kerber completely changed her tennis life

After her disappointing year 2017, Angelique Kerber has repositioned herself and made difficult decisions especially for herself – success proves her right.

By Jörg Allmeroth from Wimbledon

When Angelique Kerber arrived in London a good two weeks ago, even Aljoscha Thron was a little surprised about his boss. Thron is Kerber’s manager and agent, a doctor of medicine in fact, now a highly qualified girl for everything, one who makes contracts, deals with the media and runs the tennis company operationally. Thron was once a hopeful young professional, though his great career dream didn’t come true, but he knows what makes players tick.

“Angie had the goal so clearly in front of her eyes from day one, she was always highly concentrated, completely absorbed in her task, that was unbelievable. The goal of playing for the title in Wimbledon,” says Thron, “she’s not satisfied yet. She’s dying to take the final step.” Win. Saturday, in the finals. Against Serena Williams. Against the woman who ruined Kerber’s fun two years ago on endgame Saturday.

It is a game charged with the highest symbolism. For Williams, who is once again in the biggest final of the tennis year at her fourth tournament after the birth of her daughter Olympia and the baby break – and for the eighth time can stretch the Venus Rosewater trophy over her head.

But even more so for Kerber, who after a rollercoaster ride in tennis and a little bit in life has returned to where she was: in a high performance and mood, ready for a feat on the most dazzling stage of the tennis universe. Even better, more complete, more mature than back in 2016 on the Centre Court, when Williams had a huge fight but lost by a narrow margin and unhappily. “I know myself better now as a tennis player and as a human being. I have matured and become stronger,” says Kerber.

Which is to say: The wounds, disappointments and setbacks caused by the expulsion from the tennis paradise have given her a new stature. The self-confidence of Kerber to have found his way out of the deep crisis can also be felt at every turn in Wimbledon. “After two Grand Slam victories and first place, Angie would have ended quietly,” says long-time Fed Cup captain Barbara Rittner, “but her hunger, her ambition, her passion are simply still enormous. She’s far from full.”

Kerber is a very withdrawn, even withdrawn personality. Your world is a small world in which there are very few confidants. Kerber was never one who liked change. Trust merely draws them into a manageable circle of people, especially the family. That is why the step she also made public on 16 November 2017 was by no means as self-evident as many might have believed.

On that grey autumn day, the separation of coach Torben Beltz, the man who accompanied them on their way to two major cups and to the top of the rankings, became official. Kerber had realized that something had to happen in her company, that she had to take risks with investments and innovations – after all, 2017 had been something of a zero-sum game. In the end she had even been overtaken by Julia Görges in the tennis charts – unbelievable actually, because Kerber had opened the season as number 1.

Beltz left, it came Wim Fissette, the Belgian trainer. Kerber said it was “not easy for her,” and that wasn’t a hollow phrase like in those divorce papers. The new partners soon started preparing for the new season, and Thron, the businessman, remembers “that the focus was on Wimbledon at the time with all its might”: “You thought there was a start-up period, you had to get used to each other for a few months. And then everything will be in order when Wimbledon begins.”

Wimbledon, not only for Kerber, is still a lighthouse in the tennis year, it is a place with which especially for the Germans iconic, sport historical moments are connected: The 17-year-old Boris Becker from Leimen, his victory in 1985, which is on a par with the World Cup titles in football or Olympic highlights. Steffi Graf’s dominance on the Holy Lawn. The joint victory of Becker and Graf in 1989, the German final between Becker and Stich in 1991: Wimbledon was as important for several years as every movement of the so-called “team” is today.

Kerber also has these memories in his luggage. She says that she used to sit in front of the TV “hour after hour”, admiring the white dress of the players, this unique, unmistakable flair: “Wimbledon is a tennis tournament like no other,” says the 30-year-old. She has also experienced for herself that in Wimbledon victories and defeats increase, that everything takes on a completely different meaning than elsewhere.

Wimbledon is an emotional intensifier, for better or for worse. In 2011, after losing to British player Heather Watson, Kerber even wanted to stop playing tennis. Mother Beata Kerber remembered this moment later: “She arrived at home, threw her tennis bag into the corner and said: I just can’t do it. None of this makes any sense anymore.” A year later, however, it was her first big comeback in her professional time, she suddenly reached the semi-finals – already very close to the big luck.

At that time it was more a question of fitness, with this turnaround. Kerber worked more energetically on her agility, wiriness, endurance, a new body feeling to get out of the depression. But in the shoot after the epidemic year 2017, it was a question of character that Kerber had to answer for herself and her partisans, the question of whether she would embark on a mission with new minds, a reform of her overly entrenched game as well.

The changed Team Kerber responded faster than expected: At the Australian Open in January the German with coach Fissette missed the final only wafer-thin, after two missed match balls in the semi-final against the Romanian Simona Halep. Kerber had already been more offensive, on and off the pitch. She took things into her own hands much more often than before, literally escaping her static defensive attitude.

She now also seemed to be relieved of a burden, because all those annoying obligations, which she had to fulfil as number one for instance, had fallen away from her. Kerber just wants to play tennis successfully, just like her mentor Steffi Graf used to. The flurry of flashbulbs and the appearances on smooth parquet and red carpets were temporarily quite nice for them, as a reward, as confirmation for their hard work before, but soon they had also become annoying for Kerber again. That it slowly returned to the top of the world in 2018 remained hidden for a long time; it was not even a major international topic of discussion before Wimbledon. Much to Kerber’s delight, she feels absolutely comfortable as a strategist coming from the depths of the room.

Kerber entered the All England Club as number 11 on the seed list. Soon she was the number one of the players still fighting for the trophy. There was a strange wasting of the top forces, all ten top seeded stars were eliminated, including defending champion Garbine Muguruza from Spain. Who stayed was also and above all Kerber.

The woman who had directed all her strength and senses to Wimbledon, inspired by the will to refine her comeback here and to set the exclamation mark for everyone: I’m back again. Here, where it matters the most. It’s just too bad that Williams is still here, the massive hum that Wimbledon and Sister Serena have been keeping under control for the past decade and a half. After the baby break she is still in the depths of the world rankings, at place 181, but she already has the aura of the boss of the Tinglelbetrieb, of Miss Big Boss.

“You’re a little impressed when you see her on the other side of the net. And she knows how often she has won here and played on the Centre Court,” said Julia Görges on Thursday after the American destroyed the dream of the German-German final.

But Kerber himself is now very familiar with the big arenas. After the 2016 final against Williams, she is no longer breaking new ground; she will step out at eye level at 3 pm German time, also in front of the eyes of the duchesses Kate and Meghan in the Royal Box.

Besides Sky, even ZDF broadcasts live, Kerber has made it possible, like so many things in recent years, a time about which someone like Boris Becker says: “Angie has put German tennis back on the map”. One more win would make Kerber Wimbledon the winner. A victory greater than any before in her already remarkable career. A victory that remains. Wimbledon winner you’ll be for a lifetime.