Dominant Kerber a blast from the past
Quick win over Sharapova has German looking like No. 1 player she was in 2016
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA— The match of the day did not turn out to be the match of the day.
Maria Sharapova versus Angelique Kerber was a high-profile duel between former Australian Open champions, a stylistic contrast between punch and counterpunch, a matchup that had gone the distance the previous three times they had met. On Saturday it was a rout. Kerber’s 6-1, 6-3 victory in the third round required just 64 minutes. That was 2 hours, 40 minutes faster than the real match of the day at Rod Laver Arena. In that one, top-seeded Simona Halep shrugged off three match points to defeat American speedster Lauren Davis, 4-6, 6-4, 1513, in the afternoon.
But Kerber’s dominant display — full of brilliance on the run and fasttwitch defence from the crouch — was eye-catching in its own way. She looked re-energized: calm between points, yet eager for the tussle once play began.
“I have so many great memories from this court,” Kerber said. “This court is so special to me, and so I came out here and I was trying to enjoy each point.”
The tennis off-season is short enough that it does not always make a difference. But Kerber, at least very early in 2018, looks less like the downbeat, soul-searching player of last year and more like the fist- pumping, bring-it-on force of 2016 — when she won the Australian Open and the U.S. Open and wrested the No. 1 ranking from Serena Williams.
Williams, 36, should be back in the game soon. Her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, told me that Williams, who gave birth to a daughter in September, was still planning to return to the circuit at the tournament in Indian Wells, California, in March.
But for now, Kerber, who turned 30 on Thursday, is the veteran champion working her way back in a sunlit place. She is also, after beating Sharapova, the last major singles women’s champion left heading into the round of 16. Kerber will face Hsieh Su-wei, a 32-year-old from Taiwan who is known best for her doubles prowess.
Sharapova, who will turn 31in April, has farther to go to crank back her clock. Since returning last season from a 15-month suspension for a doping violation, she has not gotten past the fourth round in the two major tournaments she has played.
Once No. 1, she is closing in on the top 40 again. It would be quite a surprise if Sharapova were not one of the 32 seeds at the French Open, the next major tournament, which begins in Paris in May.
But her first serve was a liability Saturday night, when she put just 38 per cent into play. And though she generated plenty of her signature pace and acoustic fury, she was not nearly steady enough or acrobatic enough to keep up in this match. Kerber kept her off-balance as a rule and countered her flat power effectively when Sharapova was able to deliver groundstrokes from more solid platforms.