Season Review: Angelique Kerber

Angelique Kerber, the World No.1. Photo by Getty Images

2016 has been a dream year for Angelique Kerber. Who would have expected her to win reach 3 Grand Slam finals and be the World No.1 before that? Certainly, no one would have expected that.

Win-loss record

Kerber had a 63-18 win-loss record for this year. She has the most number of wins than anyone else on tour, and reached the most number of finals on the tour. She achieved 12 Top 10 wins this year, her most in any season. It was also the most for any player in a single season since Serena Williams in 2013 and 2014.

As Kerber is ranked in the Top 5 for most of the year, 17 of her 18 losses has come against players who are lower-ranked than her, of which 8 of them are to players outside the Top 20. If Kerber wants to become a great World No.1 player, she has to stop losing to players who are outside the Top 20 as they are considered opponents that she “must win” against to have a chance of protecting her No.1 ranking and to win Grand Slams.

Best Results

Kerber with her 2nd Grand Slam of the year. Photo by Getty Images

Win: Australian Open, Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, US Open
Final: Brisbane International, Wimbledon, Rio Olympics, Cincinnati Masters, WTA Finals

Angelique Kerber reached 8 finals during this year, her best in any season. She first started her season at the Brisbane International, reaching the final before losing to resurgent Victoria Azarenka. She then produced a magical run in winning the Australian Open, saving a match point in the first round against Misaki Doi. She also defeated Victoria Azarenka, who she has a 0-6 record against and just lost to 2 weeks ago, in the quarterfinals. In the final, she defeated Serena Williams, who was going for her record-breaking 22^nd Grand Slam title.

Her next title came at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, prevailing in a very tough field which consisted of 6 of the top 10 players in the world.

She excelled at the Wimbledon Championships, defeating Simona Halep and 5-time Wimbledon winner Venus Williams to reach the final. Kerber had another chance to defeat Serena Williams in the final, and be one of the few players able to defeat the Williams sisters in a same tournament. However, Kerber lost to Serena Williams in a tight 2 set match.

Kerber then produced an excellent run of reaching 3 consecutive finals at the Rio Olympics, Cincinnati Masters and the US Open. During this run, Kerber defeated 9 Top 20 players. It was also at the US Open when Kerber took the World No.1 ranking, to become the first German to be at the top of the WTA Rankings since Steffi Graf last held it in 1997.

Kerber almost had the perfect finish to the year when she stormed through to the final losing only 1 set at the WTA Finals. However, she lost to Dominika Cibulkova in the final.

Nevertheless, Kerber claimed the Player of the Year Award, and locked the Year-end No.1 ranking at the WTA Finals.

Kerber posing with her 1st Grand Slam trophy. Photo by Getty Images

Low Points

Over this whole year, Kerber had 5 opening round losses, which is considered quite bad for a World No.1 (Even though she only became the No.1 in September). Nevertheless, her excellent performances helped to pull her season up and allowed her to rise to the top of the rankings.

Kerber was feeling the pressure to perform well after she became a Grand Slam champion at the Australian Open. That can be seen when she lost to 73^rd ranked Zheng Saisai in Doha as the top seed, and 66^th ranked Denisa Allertova in Indian Wells as the 2^nd seed.

Kerber also had a poor outdoor clay court season, losing all the matches played on outdoor clay. She lost to Barbora Strycova in Madrid, Eugenie Bouchard in Rome, and Kiki Bertens in Paris.

As a top player in women’s tennis, Kerber was hugely criticized by her lack of motivation to play tennis. She appeared in Bastad, an international level event, as the top seed and World No.2. However, she only played 1 match before withdrawing from the tournament due to an elbow injury. In her first match, she even lost a set to the 664^th ranked qualifier Cornelia Lister. Many people doubted her injury and will to play, and she appeared at the tournament just because of the appearance fee given by the tournament.

As the World No.1 player in the world, Kerber failed to live up to the expectations as she failed to reach any final until the WTA Finals tournament. She lost to Petra Kvitova in a 3 hours and 28 minutes thriller at Wuhan, Elina Svitolina in Beijing, and Daria Gavrilova in Hong Kong. Her loss to Daria Gavrilova was the most disappointing one as she was once again hugely criticized due to her lack of will to play. She looked out of sorts and was unwilling to run for any difficult shots, and thus she was hugely criticized as the World No.1 player in the world.

Season Grade: A+

Despite some criticism of her game during this year, Kerber has had an excellent season. Reaching 3 Grand Slam finals, winning the Silver Medal at the Rio Olympics, and being the World No.1 in the world is not someone can normally do in a season! More accomplished players like Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova have not done that before, and thus Kerber’s season definitely deserves a grade of A+.