Angelique Kerber's Australian Open Triumph

The Australian Open has a habit of throwing up surprising results and brilliant stories for fans of tennis and sport in general.

In 2014 Stan Warwinka beat Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinal and Rafael Nadal in the final to win the Australian Open in dramatic fashion.  This weekend Angelique Kerber pulled off a similar feat, defeating Victoria Azarenka in the quarterfinal and Serena Williams in the final.  Like Wawrinka, Kerber found something deep inside herself, an inspiration to come up with an aggressive game plan to go for her shots and overcome players who had been dominating her in the head to head rivalry.  We were treated to a riveting final and at the end of it there was not a dry eye in the house, a very emotional victory, even Serena Williams felt emotional for Angelique! 

So, how was Angelique able to transition to grand slam champion?  Let us have a look at her progression over the last few seasons which brought her to this special moment.

It has been quite a roller coaster ride for Angelique and her fans.  After making a surprise run to the US Open semifinal in 2011, Angelique made a dramatic rise in the rankings from exactly 100 to top 10 in the space of twelve months.  I was at the Paris indoor event in 2012 when Angelique won her first ever WTA title beating Marion Bartoli in a topsy-turvy three set final.  Angelique followed that up by beating Caroline Wozniacki in Denmark to win another title two months after her first.  Everything was looking good but then hit her first real bump in Eastbourne when she lost the final after serving for the match in the 3rd set against Tamira Paszek. However, that didn’t deter her as she made a great run to the Wimbledon semifinal, beating Sabine Lisicki in a dramatic quarterfinal before losing to Agnieszka Radwanska rather easily in the semifinal.

In the 2012 Cincinnati final against Li Na, Angelique started like a house on fire, taking the first set 6:1 but eventually ran out of steam and lost in three sets.  At the US Open, Kerber defeated Venus Williams in the 2nd round but fell to Sara Errani two rounds later. Angelique qualified for the end of year championships in Istanbul and then spent much of 2013 coming to terms with her status as a top 10 player.  Angelique did win one title in 2013 towards the end of the season in Linz defeating Ana Ivanovic in an entertaining final which sealed her qualification for the season ending championships in Istanbul for the second time. 

2014 proved to be a poor year for Angelique; her performances in the majors were starting to dip dramatically. In Australia she lost to Flavia Pennetta in the fourth round and also had early losses at the French and US Open.  In Wimbledon she beat Sharapova in three sets in the fourth round but then lost to Eugenie Bouchard quite easily in the quarterfinal.  By this stage the reasons why Angelique was struggling were quite clear for everyone to see. 

When Angelique broke out in 2011, her retrieving skills and speed around the court were hailed as plus points.  However, she also possessed the ability to hit down the lines and stretch her opponents with good enterprising play.  However, by 2014 Angelique had become too reliant on defence and not developed her offensive play or serve, which had become a liability particularly in finals.  In fact, during this period Angelique played a handful of important finals including Doha and Eastbourne but lost all of them, which in turn was draining her confidence.  After another disappointing early round loss at the 2015 Australian Open, Angelique decided to dispense with coach Benjamin Ebrahimzadeh and re-hired Torben Beltz who she had worked with when she made the semifinals of US Open and Wimbledon from 2011 to 2012. 

This appointment paid immediate dividends as Angelique started to rebuild her confidence and won her first title in over a year by beating Madison Keys in a close final in Charleston, and then another even closer final against Wozniacki in Stuttgart in May 2015.  Despite early losses at the French Open and Wimbledon, Torben Beltz was definitely trying to get Angelique to play a more enterprising game and to improve her serve which had become a liability against the best returners in the game.  Her finals record continued in the summer with three set victories against Karolina Pliskova in Birmingham on grass and in Stanford during the US Open series. Angelique played a great match against Victoria Azarenka in the 3rd round of the US Open but lost.  However, she did play well during the autumn tournaments in Asia and qualified for the season ending championships in Singapore for the fourth year in succession.

A career in sport is all about progression, and although the results at the majors were not to her liking, turning her losing record in WTA finals to a winning one gave Angelique  something tangible to work on in the off season. The best players in the world combine defence and offence to make a winning combination, the key to that is the serve.  Angelique’s racquet head speed was slow, she was not generating enough pace and the serve was not accurate in the corners, her second serve was landing in the middle of the box asking to be put away.  The ability was there to hit down the lines but she was not taking advantage of this ability by attacking the net to put her opponents under pressure. Torben Beltz knew the potential.

Angelique started 2016 well, getting to the final of Brisbane before losing to Azarenka in straight sets.  And in the 1st round of the Australian Open, Angelique was match point down against Misaki Doi of Japan in the 2nd set tiebreak and came through that.  However, the match which really turned things around was the quarterfinal against Azarenka whom she had never beaten in six attempts; what was satisfying is the way she did it.  In 1997 when Pat Rafter won the US Open, then Australian Davis cup captain John Newcombe said that Rafter had found something deep down within himself which he didn’t know he had, the same could be said of Angelique.  What was so different this time was when the score got close, Angelique pulled out an ace on the line on the deuce court on at least three occasions! 

That is a perfect example of finding something deep inside herself, a bit of magic when needed which the best players can produce.  And when Azarenka had three sets points in a row in the 2nd set, Angelique hit clean offensive winners, they were not Azarenka mistakes.  Winning the match in that fashion gave Angelique the belief that she should play that kind of tennis more often, she hit 31 winners and made 16 unforced errors which is hardly the statistics of a player perceived as a counterpuncher.  Her semifinal win over Johanna Konta was a formality once she got over early nerves against an opponent in her first major semifinal.  In the final, Angelique played the best match of her entire career to date, seizing the moment against Serena Williams, who also played a good match, not at her best but her form was good enough to beat most of the other players on that particular night. Meanwhile Angelique made 25 winners and only 13 unforced errors in three tight sets, very impressive. It was a well deserved victory and now Angelique can bask in the glory of being grand slam champion.

I think Angelique has it within her to win another grand slam tournament before her career comes to a close.  Like Stan Wawrinka and Li Na, Angelique may need a bit of time to adjust to her new status as champion and we might not see her best results again for the next few months but she certainly has the desire to improve further and win more big tournaments in years to come.

It is great to see when a player realises their potential.