Australian Open 2021: Angelique Kerber - A day to forget
Angelique Kerber was eliminated in the first round of the Australian Open 2021. Down under was not worth a trip for the German number one this year.
by Jörg Allmeroth
last edit: Feb 08, 2021, 04:44 pm
It had been a good half an hour in the Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne, when a smile crossed the face of Angelique Kerber (33). It wasn't a smile that had to do with satisfaction or satisfaction, however. Kerber smiled at the somewhat absurd situation in which she was stuck at this point in time: She had lost all of the first nine games of her opening game, it was 0: 6 and 0: 3 against the American Bernarda Pera, it was desperate. And somehow a grim laugh again, it was all so sad at this messed up Australian Open start.
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“It wasn't my day,” said Kerber later, when after a sensitive 6-0 and 4-6 defeat at the first Grand Slam meters, the end of the tournament was sealed. Kerber had fought her way into the game again, in her never-giving-up attitude, but one of those typical Houdini stories with a crazy act of unleashing didn’t happen on a gray February afternoon at the National Tennis Center. The disappointment was "very big now," said Kerber, "you have to put up with that first."
Serena gives Siegemund a lesson
It was not Kerber's day, but it was not at all a day for the German women, that late start day of the first major tournament of the difficult 2021 season. Even before Kerber marched out of the court arena with sagging shoulders and a petrified face, it had happened Laura Siegemund had to undergo a lesson in the 1: 6, 1: 6 against Grandmaster Serena Williams . The lesson of the American, who is once again on the hunt for the eternal Grand Slam record with 24 titles, lasted 55 minutes and bitterly showed her German opponent the limits.
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It didn't get any better for the already narrow female contingent of the DTB when Andrea Petkovic took on Tunisia's Ons Jabeur for her first-round test: The Darmstadt-based woman plowed and toiled with the usual intensity, but when it was settled on this opening Monday, Petkovic also had after 3: 6, 6: 3 and 4: 6 no longer work as a soloist.
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Görges is already gone, Petkovic will soon follow
Kerber had crowned her rise to the top of the world five years and a week ago in Melbourne with a triumphant final victory over Serena Williams, it was the first really big moment of happiness in the midst of the new German Miss Miracle. But now the corona pandemic has intensified the signs of disintegration of this already ebbing wave of success - and if not all is wrong, German women's tennis is now facing rather barren years, with no games and players in the escalated Grand Slam phase for excitement , Drama and headlines.
Julia Görges , one of the leading actresses of this golden generation, already announced her resignation last year, also on the grounds that she lost the motivation and meaningfulness of her actions somewhere in the Corona times. Petkovic will not play beyond this season, in Melbourne she said on Monday about herself that she was curious "how long the old horse will hold out."
Kerber in a tough lockdown
And Kerber? Long before the trials and tribulations that accompanied the start of the tournament in Melbourne, she was not a winner of the pandemic era. For success, for her self-confidence, Kerber needs a regular fight on the courts, an orderly, constant work. But in 2020 she had to take an eternally long break of around nine months after the first lockdown. When she took part in the game again, she never really got going, she fell back in the world rankings and was more of a marginal figure in the great game of forces. She went to the Australian Open as number 25 in the tennis charts, it was an honest evaluation.
Much then ran against them in the countdown to the strangest Australian Open in history. The need for a hard lockdown after she was unfortunately on a plane with a later positive case. The two weeks of solitude in the hotel room, without training exercises, with a lot of time to kill. Kerber played well in the preparatory tournament last week, however, she even won against the Ons Jabeur who now beat Petkovic out of the tournament. But before she got a real feel for this challenging Grand Slam on Monday, she was already out of Melbourne history. Eight points in just 18 minutes of the first set, then three more lost games, later a riot without a happy ending - it was a very bitter farewell.
Perhaps a farewell that resonates? Kerber will also ask about the big picture of her career if there is no connection to the (just hurried) world leaders in the short to medium term. Melbourne can still tick them off as a tournament out of competition, with the special circumstances, with the competitive disadvantage that hindered their start. But she needs better results for her scratched self-confidence now, the sooner the better. A fairly normal tournament calendar would be helpful, but who knows what the next few weeks and months will bring. In Melbourne on Monday Kerber also spoke about the prospects for German women's tennis, about a morning without Kerber, Petkovic, Görges and Co. “We have to be very patient in Germany,” she said, “we have a few very good, very good ones young players. ”But, according to Kerber,“ it's about the generation after that. ”And about the“ distant future. ”
Here the single tableau of women
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