Don’t mention German efficiency, Kerber is much more
Cliche alert: never write off the Germans. American teenager Coco Gauff had all the support when she returned to the scene of her sensational emergence but Angelique Kerber had almost all the shots.
Two years ago, when she was 15, Wimbledon went loco for Coco and at that precise moment no one had ever heard of Emma Raducanu. That the latter has grabbed all the feverish headlines this time won’t have bothered Gauff and probably she was relieved to be making a seriousbidforthetitlewithoutall that hoopla and hype.
But in a thoroughly open competition for the women’s crown this year she came up against the only previous winner left standing who shut out the Centre Court cheers for Gauff, then shut downtheyoungpretender’s game, winning 6-4, 6-4.
Afterwards the mature competitor was full of praise for the rising star, 16 years her junior:“it’snevereasyagainst someoneyou’veneverplayed, especially someone like Coco who I think has a really nice and great future in front of her.”
Intheearlystagesbothwere double-faulting and over-hitting. The blustery conditions could be blamed but there were nerves in the air as well. Asidefromarecentsuccessin her homeland, Kerber hadn’t won a tournament since her 2018 triumph here.
Victory looked like it might go to whoever could be first to nail down their serve. Five games in a row went to the receiver before Kerber, driving her forehand into the corner, held hers. Gauff immediately thought this a novel way to approach the contest and matched this effort with an ace. But Gauff quickly found her forehand being relentlessly targeted by her opponent. It’s not as strong as the backhandandtoomanyshots on that side got lost in the net.kerber was able to take the first set by being merely the most efficient. That’s a word which often damns German sporting achievement with faint praise and Kerber was to demand more in the way of superlatives for her play in the second set. The angles on her returns were exquisite; the shots struck from a crouched position were too punishing even for such as a relentless runner as Gauff.
Kerber never looked back and can now divert her gaze toward today’s quarter-finals and next opponent Karolina Muchova.