Indian Wells: Angelique Kerber - "Tennis is not my top priority right now"
After her convincing victory against Daria Kasatkina at the WTA Tour 1000 tournament in Indian Wells, Angelique Kerber gave an insight into her inner life.
by tennisnet.com
last edit:
Mar 14, 2022, 03:22 pm

In terms of sport, Angelique Kerber was able to fully convince after the very difficult start against Quinwen Zheng from China at the WTA Tour 1000 tournament in Indian Wells: After beating Daria Kasatkina 6: 2 and 6: 1, the three-time winner of a Grand Slam tournament in the round of 16, where she will meet Iga Swiatek from Poland. After her success, Kerber was deeply thoughtful in her press conference.
When asked if it felt strange playing against a Russian, Kerber explained: "I've known Daria for a while now and I've been trying to get that out of my head. After the pandemic - or rather during the still ongoing pandemic - tennis is only number two for me. Right now there are much more important issues in the world. People have to flee, this whole situation is the number one issue - and everyone is afraid of it."
Kerber worried about the global political situation
Especially since Kerber has been living and training in Poland for years. “As I said, I don't live far from that situation. My grandparents are there and of course you check the news every five minutes or at least every hour. You are in contact with people. I think that's the problem that dominates my thoughts. And also that of most of the players here.”
"In this situation, I try to just concentrate on the match," Kerber continued. “So far I've done quite well with it, but I'm trying to flip the switch very late. It's not like I'm fully concentrated an hour before a match." And further: "Tennis is not my top priority at the moment."
Here the individual tableau in Indian Wells
iwmap