Australian Open 2020: one last hurray for the golden generation?
Angelique Kerber and Julia Görge s go to the Australian Open 2020 with outsider chances . But far from a favorite role as in previous years.
by Jörg Allmeroth
last edit: Jan 19, 2020, 12:31 pm
When Andrea Petkovic announced her cancellation for the Australian Open at the beginning of the year, her friend Angelique Kerber had already had a long journey to the first big tennis adventure in 2020. Kerber, the German front woman, wants to know it again this season, after a roller coaster ride of the past seasons things should go up again, ideally in Australia. Where she landed the first big coup in 2016 as the title heroine of Melbourne. Kerber had traveled across Hawaii towards the Fifth Continent, around the time when Petkovic might still have vague hopes of attending the first Grand Slam test at Melbourne Park.
But finally they parted ways, and people also thought back to the first two Sundays in Advent, when Petkovic had appeared to the German television people as a TV presenter for the ZDF sports report. At that time, it already looked as if Petkovic had already completed active tennis and was now working as a smooth, knowledgeable observer of the sports world. Which is neither entirely right nor entirely wrong. Petkovic will probably continue playing for a year or two in the treadmill of the global traveling circus. But for them it is even more important than for their long-time colleagues that strengths, energies and tournament assignments have to be precisely classified. Breaks, regularly, are necessary, not to mention injury breaks like now in January.
Kerber and Görges with new coaches
The beginning of the new decade marked a turning point in German women's tennis because the main forces of this women's movement are now all on the home straight of their careers. Those players who made for a remarkable upswing in the decade, especially Angelique Kerber, who became the first German player in the absolute world class and heiress to Steffi Graf - with three Grand Slam titles, including the Wimbledon Coup 2018, with 1st place in the world rankings and an Olympic silver medal in her brilliant year 2016. But also Julia Görges, who was able to fulfill her dream of a top ten position late on. Petkovic and Kerber are now 32 years old, Görges 31. One question is: does the Ü-30 faction have big things ahead of them, Kerber with her new coach Dieter Kindlmann, Görges with a new trainer Jens Gerlach? And the other question is: How is it going on after this golden German generation, after years in which even great titles have been brought back to the former tennis wonderland Germany.
Lost terrain against Barty and Co.
In any case, 2019 was not the year for the German players, in any respect. Kerber fell back in the world rankings, she was no longer within the reach of the top cups, Görges disappointed a little more. In the end, they ended up in places 20 and 28 in the world rankings. There was a big gap behind them, and only in places 75 and 78 were there German staff again, with the Schwäbin Laura Siegemund and with Petkovic. Something else was actually more remarkable, namely the absence of young German players, young players from other generations. The only German player under 25 who even made it into the top 200 was Antonia Lottner from Rheinplatz in 160th place. Lottner is also the only one from the younger generation to enter the race after qualifying. "I'm already worried about the future," says the head of German women's tennis, Barbara Rittner. “There is a huge gap behind our established top people. I just hope that they will continue to play for a few more years. "
It will not be easy for the top managers around Angelique Kerber to regain lost terrain. Because in 2019, global women's tennis experienced rapid stories about young, dynamic players like Ashleigh Barty , Bianca Andreescu , Belinda Bencic, Aryna Sabalenka and Naomi Osaka. Andreescu, the 19-year-old Canadian, set the brilliant final chord with her US Open victory. The world rankings rearranged, in the absence of German players in this power struggle. At the end of the decade, in which some black, red and gold exclamation marks were fixed on the Center Courts, the hierarchy initially looked like it did at the beginning of the decade - with no German players at or near the summit. It is high time for Kerber, Görges and their fellow campaigners that something turns. 2020. And possibly beyond.
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