Kerber digs in to earn her final reward after taming error-prone Ostapenko
Angelique Kerber (Germany) bt Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia) 6-3, 6-3 By Simon Briggs TENNIS CORRESPONDENT at Wimbledon
Angelique Kerber has been here before. In her career-best season of 2016 – during which she won both hard-court slams – Kerber also reached the Wimbledon final. Yet her dream of emulating childhood idol Steffi Graf was swept aside in just 81 minutes by Serena Williams.
Two years later, Kerber is back, after much soul-searching and selfdiscovery. Starting the 2017 season as world No1 turned out to be a burden for this charming but understated woman, who felt her poise disintegrating interview by interview, photo shoot by photo shoot.
At the start of 2018, Kerber decided it was time to put herself first. As a result, her performances on the match court have been revitalised. She reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open and the quarter-finals of the French Open, losing to world No 1 Simona Halep both times.
Halep fell in the third round here, but another major champion – Je- lena Ostapenko, who won at Roland Garros last year – stood in Kerber’s way yesterday. If the best tennis matches are contrasts of styles, this should have been a classic.
Ostapenko plays tennis the way we all play in our dreams: swashbuckling power and freedom off both wings, with the occasional deft drop shot to break up the blitzkrieg. Whereas Kerber’s chief virtue is her obduracy.
Yesterday’s rallies involved rapier thrusts from one end and desperate parries from the other. Defence overcame attack on this occasion. The match felt like it was being played on fast-forward and
Kerber won after just 68 minutes. “Last year, things weren’t like I was expecting, actually,” said Kerber afterwards. “Now I want to make the priority to playing tennis, to focusing on just what I love.”
Disappointingly, this was the third straight year that Wimbledon’s women’s semi-finals had failed to deliver a deciding set be-
tween them. Part of the problem is the high turnover of the women’s game. Yesterday was only Ostapenko’s second major semi-final, while Julia Goerges – who was crushed 6-2, 6-4 by Serena Williams – was appearing on this stage for the first time.
In Ostapenko’s case, she became disheartened by her high error count much too quickly. Playing
the way she does requires an ability to absorb the inevitable misses and keep pushing forward. Halep spoke about this after Ostapenko’s French Open triumph, saying: “Enjoy it, be happy and keep it going because you’re like a kid.” She still had some memorable moments. The velocity of her backhand, in particular, drew gasps from the crowd. But this was a
useful lesson for a woman who only turned 21 last month. “Ostapenko is young,” said Billie Jean King on the BBC’S coverage. “She plays young. Too many errors.” But she will be back, and next time some of those missiles are sure to land.
As for Kerber, she credited her team with “helping me to come back, to believe in me again”. The key man in her corner – coach Wim Fissette – was also at Johanna Konta’s side when she played the semifinal here last year.
Given his excellent record, anyone might think that Konta made a tactical error when she dumped Fissette at the end of last season.