Thursday, July 8th, 2021
Triumphal procession at Wimbledon
Kerber’s luck only came back with the fans
By Till Erdenberger
Angelique Kerber comes through tough months full of disappointments: The once best tennis player in the world slips in the world rankings and sometimes loses enthusiasm for her sport. Forgotten everything in the wonderful days of Wimbledon.
Angelique Kerber is lucky again and it seems like the English fans have given her back. In Wimbledon, of all places, the mythical site of tennis. “To play here, in front of you spectators, that means a lot to me,” said Germany’s best tennis player after her impressive 6: 2, 6: 3 quarter-final victory over Czech Karolina Muchova in the quarter-finals of the world’s most important tennis tournament. She stood there on Court No.1, the former number 1 in the tennis world, with wet eyes, and spoke to the fans.
They had supported the German, carried through a match that nobody had expected from the 33-year-old. The preliminary work was too dark for a long time, the Corona year 2020 was completely screwed up, 2021 was not much better until the tournament victory in Bad Homburg in the week before the trip to London. Now she will play in the afternoon (2.30 p.m. / Sky and in the live ticker on ntv.de) in the semifinals of the most important tennis tournament in the world against Ashleigh Barty.
From round to round it becomes more obvious what a tremendous influence the atmosphere around her has on the game of the most successful German tennis player since the era of the great Steffi Graf. “She just feels loved, recognized and admired by the English”, explained the German lady boss Barbara Rittner: “Angie is a very emotional and passionate person, that can make a big difference.” It is an “art” to keep motivation high, admitted Kerber at the end of 2020 and looked at games without spectators with skepticism, without the usual emotions: “With all the gratitude to be able to play again, I can of course feel that it is not that what I know and what I actually miss. ” At Wimbledon, the ranks have been full again since the quarter-finals, and the courts were already full in the first week. And with the return of the fans, doubts about the meaningfulness of their own actions have been wiped aside again.
“This passion and the fun of tennis”
The overture to the great Wimbledon triumphal procession had taken place in Bad Homburg, at a rather small event compared to the large multimillion spectacle in London: Kerber had won the title there, her first in three years. For a former number 1, an agonizingly long time of doubt. The 33-year-old won five matches there, close and clear – and above all, conviction: “It showed me that I can win matches again, regardless of whether it is a small or a larger tournament. That gave me back my confidence. and I went to Wimbledon with confidence, “enthused Kerber. The three-hour Homburg semi-final against the two-time Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova, it was perhaps an even bigger success than the straight win in the final against the Czech outsider Katerina Siniakova: “I think it’s very important,” admitted Kerber. “That I showed myself that I can continue to win such close games.”
And also to the many fans who wore them in the second round through the 199-minute long attrition battle against the Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo, at the end of which both players were bid farewell to the court with standing ovations. She has missed this support in the past few months, said Kerber. “That’s what I’ve always wanted, and it gives me that last kick, this passion and the fun of tennis.” In Homburg they cheered 600 fans, the games on the Center Court of Wimbledon were followed by almost 15,000 people.
Now Kerber is up against the world’s number 1, Ashleigh Barty. Kerber has already played five times against the Australian and won three times. For Barty, who, like Kerber, has won three Grand Slam tournaments so far, grass is actually not the basis for the really big feelings: The semi-finals are Barty’s greatest success at Wimbledon, before she was never past the round of 16 came. “One day I want to be champion here. It’s my dream, it’s my goal,” said Barty a while ago. She has never been so close to her goal. But in the way there is Angelique Kerber, who these days has found the perfect mix of aggressiveness and control, focus and serenity. “I’ve been here four times in the semi-finals and twice in the final. Of course that’s something I’m trying to take away for myself.”
“You should never underestimate Angie”
For Rittner, the phenomenal resurrection of the three-time Grand Slam winner Kerber was no surprise – despite three first-round bankruptcies in the major tournaments: “There was just a little lack of conviction and self-confidence. But that’s not gone. Especially not when someone works, “said Rittner. It was clear to them that Kerber could attack again on their favorite surface. “You should never underestimate an Angie Kerber, what is in her,” she said: “She always has great chances on grass because her game fits so naturally on grass.”
Your game, Kerber now wants to enforce against Barty: “I have to go out aggressively and bravely take my game in hand. I know that I have to go out and believe that I can win the match,” she said. Aggressive, with conviction and with all the pressure with a much lower error rate than in the previous months – that’s Angelique Kerber’s game. Hardly any other player was so tough and uncomfortable for her opponents in the days of Wimbledon. Kerber takes the balls extremely early and returns them with full power. She can still do it and she shows it again. It’s the game that once made her the best tennis player in the world.
A good omen for the match against Barty: The German beat her opponent on Church Road. That was 2018, a few days later she won the title. No, she “never doubted that I could make it back,” said Kerber. But she is “immensely grateful that after the last few months I got another chance to make it to the semi-finals at Wimbledon.” For the fourth time. “The journey,” Kerber announced before the semifinals, pathetically and optimistically, “the journey is not over yet.” The many fans on Church Road will love to accompany you.
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