Three Porsche brand ambassadors at the Australian Open
For the Porsche brand ambassadors Angelique Kerber, Julia Görges and Maria Sharapova, the Australian Open, which starts in Melbourne on Monday, is the first highlight of the 2020 tennis season.
by press release
last edit: Jan 19, 2020, 09:30 am
All of them aim to get as far as possible, but their starting positions before the first Grand Slam tournament of the year could hardly be more different for the former winners of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix: Julia Görges got what she needed from the preparatory tournaments in Auckland and Adelaide Confidence in her first round match against Slovakian Viktoria Kuzmova and says she wants to lay the foundation in Melbourne to get back to "where I've been before, so back in the top 10." Maria Sharapova, against Croatian Donna Vekic starts into the tournament and, after a lot of bad luck with injuries, fights with great energy for a successful return to the WTA Tour. And Angelique Kerber, who had to give up injured in her second round match at the tournament in Adelaide a week ago, hopes with great optimism that she will be fit for the Australian Open again in good time. As the first opponent, a qualifier was drawn for her.
"I would have loved to play a few more matches"
“It was not the preparation I wanted for this tournament. I would have loved to play a few more matches, ”says the Kiel native. She is celebrating her 32nd birthday this Saturday and has wished to arrange the training in such a way that she can “sleep well and then have a relaxed breakfast”. In the past few years the tournament had mostly started on her birthday, but she is happy not to have the “Happy Birthday, Angie”, with which the fans in Melbourne regularly celebrate, in this case: “It is nice that I am not this time has to look at the clock and it can get a little late in the evening. "
The Australian Open is a very special tournament for Angelique Kerber. In 2016, she won her first Grand Slam victory in Melbourne in the final against Serena Williams. By then she had been a Porsche brand ambassador for a year. A task that she sees as "great honor". "Regardless of which continent or metropolis I am in, I feel again and again what enormous enthusiasm the Porsche brand evokes," says the two-time winner of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix (2015 and 2016). Your favorite model? "I've been able to drive a few models, but for me the 911 is an icon and stands for the Porsche feeling like no other car."
"The first match in a Grand Slam is never easy"
But now for the top player of Porsche Team Germany the comeback at the Australian Open is in the foreground. She is glad that she will only have to start her opening match in Melbourne on Tuesday. Until then, she says confidently, the hardening in her thigh, which caused her to cancel the final of the Hawaii Open in December, will hopefully no longer be a problem. She traveled to Australia with Dieter Kindlmann as a new trainer (“a relaxed guy who knows his way around on the tour and knows how everything works”) and appears very relaxed at all when she makes her first public appearance in Melbourne. “Injuries happen in sports. I have to cope with this and put all my strength and the positive energy that this tournament has given me in recent years into a good comeback, ”she says. The fact that her first opponent will be a qualifier does not make it easy to get into the tournament: "The first match in a Grand Slam is never easy, no matter who you are playing against." Her goals for this season go far anyway good matches at the Australian Open. "I want to have a healthy and injury-free year," she says. "For me, this is the basis for delivering consistently good performance."
"I missed my fans and the competition"
Maria Sharapova also has high hopes for a successful start to the season at the Australian Open. The 32-year-old Russian played only 16 matches on the WTA Tour in 2019 due to persistent shoulder problems. What did she miss most when she could hardly play tournaments in the past year and at best train, often not even that? "I missed my fans and the competition," she says. “Those were tough times because I love what I do. Everyone can see that when I'm on the pitch. ”Now the former world number one is looking forward to finally playing at the highest level again, because, she says, she still feels“ the fire in me and great motivation. ”You is happy to be back on the tour, especially at the Australian Open, which she won in 2008. What goals did she set for this season? "I want to feel good on the pitch again and have no pain," she says. "If I still manage to play better in every match than in the match before, I'm very happy."
One tournament that the five-time Grand Slam winner will not want to miss this season is the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, where she was celebrated as the winner in 2012, 2013 and 2014. "This is one of my favorite tournaments," she says. “The other players also love to serve in the Porsche Arena. The audience is fantastic and creates a great atmosphere, no matter who is on the pitch. It's a great week for all of us and a great preparation for the French Open. ”
"I want to be back in the top 10"
Julia Görges had the best start to the season for the Porsche brand ambassadors. At the preparatory tournaments in Auckland and Adelaide, she was able to collect the match practice that her colleagues lacked before the Australian Open. "Overall, however, I felt very good on the pitch, my performance was right," she says. “In this respect, it was definitely a good start.” The 31-year-old from Regensburg, Germany, has big plans for 2020. Her big goal is to make the leap back into the top 10. To achieve it, she has to go far in the big tournaments like now at the Australian Open. She created the conditions for this in preparation for the new season. "I feel good and hope that I can do that on the pitch," she says. Because she wants to play even more successfully in the Grand Slams in particular, she brought in Jens Gerlach as her new coach, with whom she had already worked in the Fed Cup at Porsche Team Germany: “He already has Anastasia Myskina to win the French Open knows what it takes to successfully complete seven matches in a row. "
Julia Görges has represented Porsche as a brand ambassador since 2018. “I've had a very special relationship with Porsche since I won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in 2011. That was my first big success, actually the start of my career, ”she says. “At the latest since this success, Porsche has had a very special place in my heart. That is why I am very proud of how the company has developed in recent years and how responsibly Porsche is committed to sustainability in the production of its cars. ”
"The mood in Melbourne is unique"
The Australian Open is their favorite Grand Slam tournament. “The mood in Melbourne is unique. The spectators are fantastic, and the small but noisy German fan colony also creates a great atmosphere, ”she says. "I love Australia and almost feel at home in this country, even though it is so far away." She is all the more depressed by the many bushfires in Australia: "The effects on the people and animals affected are terrible. Given this disaster, tennis becomes a minor matter. I am therefore very happy about the willingness of many players to make donations to alleviate the suffering of those affected and to support the disaster relief workers in their self-sacrificing work. "