Angelique Kerber at the Porsche Tennis Talk: "You know in your head that the fans are there"
It will be a different Porsche Tennis Grand Prix than usual - but the usual strong one. One of them, of course: Angelique Kerber , two-time winner in Stuttgart. In "Advantage 911 - The Porsche Tennis Talk" she already gave an outlook.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Apr 13, 2021, 01:20 pm
The one player at the beginning, it was beautiful and sad at the same time: The best pictures from the last Porsche Tennis Grand Prix could be seen, the tennis-crazy Stuttgart audience interacting with energetic players, plus Angelique Kerber's famous fist ... Nice: because it will be back soon starts, already next Saturday (April 17th) with the qualification - wistful, because this tennis-crazy audience will not be there.
Tennis in Corona times: At the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix , you do everything you can to offer the best virtual experience instead of being on site - that is what tournament director Markus Günthardt and Dr. Sebastian Rudolph, Head of Communications at Porsche AG, of course. "We want to maintain the character of the tournament, without spectators, but rather multimedia, " said Rudolph. Günthardt described the 2021 event as a "hybrid model", which also stands as a kind of test run for the future: "Of course we will then have spectators on site again, but the digital share will increase."
Günthardt: "We are the strongest tournament in the world"
The field of participants reads as strong as ever. "We are the strongest tournament in the world," explained Günthardt, "like the second week in a Grand Slam tournament, where number 5 can meet number 12 at the beginning." 14 players from the top 20 are there, 7 Grand Slam winners, and for the first time Ashleigh Barty, the current number 1 in the world. Günthardt is “excited to see what she will tear at us”, especially since Barty knows how to play on sand: in 2019 she won her first major title at the French Open.
At the end of the talk, Angie Kerber also did the honors. She is already preparing diligently, is in Germany, according to the two-time winner of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix (2015, 2016). Of course, things will be a little different in Stuttgart in 2021, “but you know in your head that the fans will be there. They will support us a little differently. "For Kerber, too, tennis has of course changed in times of the Corona, in addition to the bubble life also in terms of leisure activities, because the free time is now greater at tournaments:" I have a lot more books or games with me " , the 33-year-old reflected on her packing behavior when traveling.
Kerber wants to take away good omen
She “ticked off” the rather mediocre start to the year, according to Kerber, the goal is anyway “to play the big tournaments well” - even if she avoided the specific missing title at the French Open. The passion for tennis is still very great, Kerber rejected any thoughts of resignation à la Julia Görges . "They are so far away that I don't waste any thoughts," explained the three-time major winner.
Which of course also wants to tear something in Stuttgart, despite the strong competition, Kerber is 25th in the world rankings. barely slipped into the main field. After their victories in the Porsche Arena, things didn't go quite as smoothly in recent years, only in 2019 they made it to the quarter-finals again. Will it continue in 2021? The prerequisites are right: while Kerber was involved in the talk, Günthardt and Rudolph were sitting "on the exact same level in the Porsche Museum where Angie held her press conference after her Wimbledon victory in 2018", as Rudolph said, much to the delight of Germany's number 1: "I'll take the omen with me to make it into the tournament well."