Kerber says top ranking weighs, but ready for grass season

EASTBOURNE, England: World number one Angelique Kerber needs no reminding how perilous life on Tour can be when you are the player everyone wants to knock off their perch.

Less than a month ago she became the first top seed to lose in the French Open first round in the professional era when she was dumped out in Paris by 40thranked Ekaterina Makarova.

That was the low point of a season that, despite spending much of it at the top of the WTA rankings, has been by her own admission a struggle.

The 29-year- old said handling all the extra baggage that comes with being at the top of the tennis tree has been difficult. But she

But I think I learned a lot during the last six months. It’s something nice to be number one, of course, but there are much more expectations. Angelique Kerber, World number one

believes that with a whiff of the ocean and the grasscourts in her nostrils, she will enter Wimbledon refreshed and with the slate wiped clean.

“Not the best half year,” Kerber, who will play Kristyna Pliskova in the second round of the Aegon International at Eastbourne after a first- round bye, told a news conference at a sun- drenched Devonshire Park on England’s Sussex coast. “But I think I learned a lot during the last six months. It’s something nice to be number one, of course, but there are much more expectations.

“The off season was too short and I didn’t have time to sit down and think about what I achieved,” she explained.

Kerber, who owns 10 career titles, has a mediocre 19-13 winloss record this season and has reached only one final.