10 Things You Need To Know About Angelique Kerber
SINGAPORE – Angelique Kerber heads into the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global as World No.1 – and she intends to stay that way. It will be her fourth appearance at the tournament, where she will attempt to make it beyond the round robin stage for the first time.
1) Top notch.
Kerber looks set to end the year as the World No.1 – a position she achieved for the first time in September when she won her second Grand Slam, the US Open, and bumped Serena Williams off the top spot. If she does finish as year-end World No.1, she will be the 12th woman to do so since rankings were introduced in 1975.
2) Experience counts.
Kerber is the 22nd woman to achieve the World No.1 ranking – and, at 28 years old, the oldest to debut in that spot.
3) Flying the flag.
She is the first German to make it to World No.1 since Stefanie Graf – one of her idols.
4) First left.
She is also the first left-handed player to hit the heights of World No.1 since Monica Seles – last at the top of the rankings almost 20 years ago.
5) Queen of Consistency.
2016 will be Kerber’s fifth straight year in the Top 10 – but her first in the top five since 2012.
6) Triumphant 2016.
Kerber signalled her intentions when she beat Williams in the Australian Open final back in January – and she followed that up by reaching the Wimbledon final, when she lost narrowly to Williams. Kerber won 19 of 22 matches during the summer swing as she reached the semifinals in Montreal, collected a silver medal at the Olympics and was a finalist at Cincinnati – indeed, she played 11 matches in 14 days throughout that hectic period. It didn’t have too much of a detrimental effect on her, though – she rounded it off with her second Grand Slam title by defeating Karolina Pliskova in the US Open final.
7) 28 years later.
Not to emphasise her age too much, but Kerber is only the second woman to win her first two Grand Slam singles titles after turning 28. Li Na did it first, winning the 2011 French Open at 29 and, three years later, the Australian Open.
8) First loss.
Since reaching No.1, Kerber has lost to Petra Kvitova (Wuhan), Elina Svitolina (Beijing) and Daria Gavrilova (Hong Kong).
9) Final ambition.
Kerber insists the prospect of finishing the year at No.1 is not on her mind – and that her goal is simply to do well in Singapore.
10) Big challenge.
Despite making her debut at the WTA Tour Finals back in 2012, Kerber has yet to qualify out of the round-robin stage – indeed, during her debut she did not win a single match. She has qualified for the Finals in every year since, except for 2014 where she was an unused alternate. And she’ll be confident that she knows how to handle the pressure of the big occasion now – she drastically improved her three-set win percentage by 18.4 per cent (from 15-12 in 2015 to 17-6 in 2016). That includes both her Grand Slam victories, taking the finals in three sets – showing that she can win on the biggest stages of all.
