In the absence of Angelique Kerber, the eight best female players of the 2017 season will be playing for the World Cup crown in Singapore (Sunday from 11 a. m. LIVE on DAZN and in the LIVETICKER). There is no definite favourite.
A year ago, it was also an immense success in Singapore. As the leader of women’s tennis, Angelique Kerber smiled at the posters that pointed out the World Cup spectacle in the metropolis of South East Asia. Kerber was then, in October 2016, the world’s number one. She was the player of the season at all, twice Grand Slam winner and Wimbledon and Olympic finalist. She reached the final of the season’s final championship once again, but it was not a perfect end to the madly successful year. But a last tournament without any deep disappointment, without discord, without any real bitterness.
Twelve months later, the best of the best have reunited in Singapore, the eight strongest players of the 2017 season. Many big names are searched for in vain, even Grand Slam winners of the current series are missing. And Kerber, the clear number 1 of last year, is also not at the start. There was no dramatic, futile battle for Kerber’s World Cup ticket, her absence had been sealed long before some of the top players fought for every single counter in the fall. Kerbers year was very modest, especially in the Grand Slams.
Only once, in the Wimbledon round of sixteen, did her old class and passion appear. She lost the game, there was a brief hope that everything would turn around again this year. But then the 29-year-old from Kiel quickly fell back into crisis. When she lost to Olympic champion Monica Puig in the first round of the tournament in Luxembourg this week, hardly anyone noticed her. Fatal, but true: Kerber’s frustrating results have already been reacquainted.
As I said: Kerber is not the only player from last year’s tournament who is missing from Sunday in the fight for the crown of the World Cup. Australian Open winner Serena Williams, now mother of the Australian team, is probably making a comeback to the start of the 2019 season. US Open winner Sloane Stephens and last year’s World Champion Dominika Cibulkova did not have enough points to qualify. Madison Keys (USA) and Russia’s Svetlana Kusnetzova (Russia) will only be allowed to watch if the last title of the season is awarded,”It is certainly one of the most surprising fields in the history of the World Cup,”says former champion Martina Navratilova.
As the winner of the race to Singapore, Romanian Simona Halep received a Porsche 911 Carrera GTS in Karminrot from the Stuttgart sports car manufacturer on Friday. The question now arises as to whether the 26-year-old will improve her good season and the jump to first place on the world ranking list with a big title this season. Halep is inevitably one of the co-favorites, but observers like US superstar Chris Evert expect to win the title of Wimbledon-Queen Garbine Muguruza (Spain) or Czech Karolina Pliskova. Muguruza and Pliskova had already jumped to first place in the ranking this year.
Youngsters such as French Open winner Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia) or Elina Svitolina (Ukraine) have the potential to create surprises – but it is still unclear whether they will be able to mobilise the necessary forces once again after the strains of the long season. And then there’s also by far the oldest starter at this World Cup: Venus Williams (37), finalist at the Australian Open and this year’s Wimbledon, one of the most constant players of the last few months.
When she played for the first time at a world championship 18 years ago, all the other competitors of this tournament were still in childhood or not even enrolled at school. One time Venus won the World Cup in her career, in 2008 in Doha against the Russian Vera Zvonereva. She’s retired from the big stage long ago. Only Venus plays and continues to play and play. Maybe even so hard that a big title win is possible.
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