At the end of the last WTA season, Serena Williams was the player in vogue. From being in the reckoning to win all four Grand Slams in the same year to coming within touching distance of equalling Steffi Graf’s record of 22 majors, the American had captivated the tennis world. All over again.
Two months later, in the new season, the WTA had ceased to be only about Serena Williams. Angelique Kerber tilted the paradigm of the one-player domination entirely.
The rise of Angelique Kerber
The 28-year-old German had come to be the unlikely winner at the Australian Open. But instead of being marred by inconsistency as has been prone to happen in the WTA, she built upon this win to supersede Williams. But more than just supplanting the American awhile, it was in the race to the finish that Kerber came out on top. Partly aided by her own confidence and the rest taken care by Williams’s withdrawal from the WTA season finals in Singapore.
Speaking of which, it’s where Kerber had a lot to do. She qualified for the finals for the fourth time in her career, after having done so in 2012, 2013 and 2015. Prestige aside, there was also a tinge of dubiousness tagging her in that she had failed to go beyond the round robin stage in each of the three times she had previously qualified. Entering the tournament as the top seed, merely days after she clinched the year-end top spot in the WTA rankings, in the player-heavy Red Group, Kerber was looking to change this dwindled fortune of hers.
And she did so superbly, finishing as the group topper, winning all three of her round robin matches against Dominika Cibulkova, Simona Halep and Madison Keys (in that order).
The WTA Finals' story
Her game was effectual, more so when she needed to dig deep to eke out a win. As she did in her opening match in Singapore, against Cibulkova. The biggest reason for her game coming through was then that she didn't let pressure of expectations overpower her. “For sure, the pressure is a little bit bigger because I think that everybody is expecting now that I win and I can go to the semis or the finals all the time,” she said in an interview to the WTA Insider, right before the start of the tournament. “For me it’s not like that, because we have here the best players. I know that I have to play and work hard again every single match. So, for me it’s important to go out there and focusing step by step. I know that I have to give everything and just fighting again like I played the last few months. This will be also the way I would like to play here.”
Knowing this is how she’s been playing this season; she could have her best outing in the tournament than the previous years. That’s also where the troublesome nuances within the spectacular year Kerber come into the picture.
Problematic subtleties
In 2015, except Serena Williams, there were five different finalists at the Slams. This year, Williams and Kerber reached three finals each and there were only two other finalists apart from them – Garbiñe Muguruza, who won the French Open against Williams, and Karolina Pliskova, who lost the US Open final to Kerber. The German's prowess in the Slams however don’t make it up for her losses in the finals of the other events she played this year.
In August, in Cincinnati, Kerber had a chance of ending Williams’s continuity as the WTA queen. In the final however, she was upset by Pliskova. This not only meant that she had to wait until the US Open fortnight to try and get to the world No. 1, the probability of that happening also rested on Williams not winning the title. In addition to postponing the peak of her rise, the loss in Cincinnati also pinpointed a lop-sidedness to her title-winning statistics.
Will 2017 see more of Kerber?
Despite having reached four Premier Mandatory and Premier Five finals – the highest events in the WTA calendar – Kerber has never won a title in any. Likewise, she has only won 10 singles titles and lost 14 finals, which puts her in quite a tricky situation. Asking for, and maintaining, consistency in the WTA Tour is a tall order, and Kerber has her work cut out to end this abysmal pattern set. The sole exception of which has been Serena Williams, despite her wellness woes.
The world No. 1 does not lack self-belief of her being able to do so. As she herself put it to the WTA Insider, “I’m still the same player like one year ago. My daily schedule is a little bit tighter than before but I’m trying to enjoying it. I’ve learned a lot to also saying sometimes no and taking care of myself. So, this is what I’ve learned in the last few months. In this situation, I have much more confidence right now. I know how to play the big tournaments also mentally, how to win really tough matches in tough situation, or like playing finals in big tournaments, big stages.”
Potentially capping off the season with the WTA Finals title will then not be the ideal epilogue of Kerber's 2016. It will also be a meaningful prologue to usher in the new season.
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