WTA: Angelique Kerber confident of Sydney title

Angelique Kerber’s eleventh tournament victory: Former number one in the world continued her impressive series and won her first title in Sydney against Ashleigh Barty since the US Open 2016.

Angelique Kerber had given her opponent Ashleigh Barty a last chance to make a comeback: At 3-4, Barty won a breakball and could have equalized. The double major winner Kerber, however, showed an unbelievable security in decisive moments, as she had done since the beginning of the year, won her service game and after 72 minutes 6:4 and 6:4 against the young Australian.

Kerber thus continued her perfect 2018 series in front of Australian tennis legend Ken Rosewall’s eyes: After four individual victories at the Hopman Cup in Perth, the two-time Majority winner also proved untouchable in Sydney. Only in round one against Lucie Safarova did Kerber have bigger problems.

Neo-Coach Wim Fissette could only confirm his protégé after the first set how well Kerber played. With the Belgian on her side, the 29-year-old’s backhand in particular has become more stable again, and Kerbers’ athletic condition reminds us of its heyday two years ago.

Barty tries to achieve success by playing a wide variety of games, but above all with the forehand he picked up the pace. However, Kerber was too stable and made hardly any mistakes. After 72 minutes Kerber sent a longline ball with the forehand on Barty’s side, which the Australian could not return to the field.

Kerber took 470 world ranking points from Sydney, which means that the Kieler will once again be among the top 20 players. After her triumph Kerber emphasized her love for Australia in the winning interview. No wonder, she had won her first Grand Slam tournament here just two years ago.

For the German exceptional player, it was her first tournament win since her second Grand Slam title in 2016 at the US Open. Angelique Kerber is now one of the favourites for the first Grand Slam tournament of the year. In Melbourne, Anna-Lena Friedsam, a countrywoman, was drawn to her opponent in a duel with Maria Sharapova. In its current state, Kerber needs to have few reservations.

Here the single panel in Sydney