Angelique Kerber on task in Bad Homburg: "Not so difficult to make us happy"
Angelique Kerber is also slowly getting used to new tasks - such as the new tennis tournament in Bad Homburg.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Dec 12, 2019, 02:11 pm
Roger Federer has shown the way: with the Laver Cup, he - through manager Tony Godsick - has already set the course for the time after his career, and his investment with the Swiss shoe manufacturer On shows that Federer can also do without a tennis racket. And Andrea Petkovic recently made headlines as the new moderator of the ZDF sports reportage.
Angelique Kerber now also looks to the future. At the new tournament in Bad Homburg, which will celebrate its premiere in 2020 the week before Wimbledon, Kerber is not only active as a sporting horse on board, but also behind the scenes. The tournament is organized by Kerber's company AK Management in collaboration with the Perfect Match agency of Markus Günthardt, who runs the largest German and internationally popular women's tournament in Stuttgart with the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix .
Bad Homburg as a "boutique tournament"
"It was important to me from the start that it should be a warm, friendly tournament, I know what the players want, " Kerber said in an interview with the FAZ . It's not that difficult to make us happy. The players want good sporting conditions and they want to feel good. ”Bad Homburg calls her a" boutique tournament ", and what is important is the fine personal atmosphere.
The team around Kerber knows that it can be difficult for Bad Homburg - with a total prize money of "only" $ 275,000 - to pull the really big stars ashore. Her manager Aljoscha Thron knows: "As with any other tournament, you also have to talk to the individual players, there will be many dialogues in advance."
Kerber will of course pull as Germany's figurehead, as Wimbledon winner 2018 anyway. And the woman from Kiel not only wants to let her heart play on, but also next to the court. If she does something, then it does it right, says Kerber. "Then I would also like to bring my heart into it. Of course that takes time and you no longer just have tennis in your head, you also have other conversations that you have, you have to be creative, you have to think about which partners to add, you have to ask who fits our concept, this tournament. It all takes time, but it's not wasted time. We are building something up and are getting bigger, better and more experienced every year. ”
The beginning before the beginning seems to have been successful: As the Bad Homburg Open explained a few days ago, the final Saturday is already sold out .