By Chris Oddo | Tuesday August 29, 2017
A disastrous Grand Slam season came to an end for Angelique Kerber in New York today. How will she pick up the pieces?
Photo Source: Elsa/Getty
She added former coach Benjamin Ebrahimzadeh to her team, and even spent time this summer working at Patrick Mouratoglou’s academy, but in the end nothing could change the fortunes of two-time Grand Slam champion Angelique Kerber.
More: Osaka Demolishes Kerber for First Top 10 Win
The defending champion was bounced from the draw in straight sets by Naomi Osaka, but Kerber is trying hard not letting her latest Grand Slam disappointment dampen her spirits.
“I know how good I can play,” she told reporters on Tuesday. “I know how good I practice the last few weeks, but, yeah, sometimes we have these days, and at the end, this is sport. You never know what's happen. Yeah, at the end she plays good.”
Kerber’s drop in 2017 has been nearly as remarkable in her rise in 2016. She dropped to 25-18 with Tuesday’s loss and remains without a win against a Top 20 players all season (0-9).
Perhaps even more shocking from a statistical standpoint is that Kerber went 41-14 against members of the WTA's Top 50 last season. In 2017 she struggled, going 7-14 against the Top 50. That's a numerical way of saying that Kerber has lost the ability to beat anybody good.
This is a player that won 66 matches on tour last season, with just 19 losses. It’s hard not to wonder if Kerber is carrying some type of ailment that she’s not talking about to press, but she downplayed that narrative today in press.
She said that her play picked up at Wimbledon and in the ensuing weeks, where she saw improvement in practice. Despite those improvements she did say that her elbow has given her some problems at times.
But not enough to knock her to the sidelines, and not enough for her to use it as an excuse.
”After Wimbledon I was actually confident, because I was practicing good,” she said. “I knew that everything is going on the right way, but, yeah, like you said, I was a little bit injured and it's still not 100 percent with my elbow. But, I mean, I'm always trying my best and also my team is trying the best, and I think this was also during the whole year I always had some small things that, yeah, giving me not the opportunity to playing my best. But at the end, you know, I'm always trying the best with all the things I have.”
More than anything, Kerber says that she needs more matches. That might explain her willingness to play through pain that may or not be significant. She believes that with matches will come form, so she continues to play despite her struggles.
“I mean, for sure that I played much more matches than last year, and this is always different,” she said. “Yeah, I know that I can still improve, I mean, few more things, especially my serve and my returns. There are few things, but I think it's coming just with matches and match confidence.”
The German will fall out of the Top 10 after the U.S. Open. She becomes the first defending champion to lose in the first round at New York in 12 years. Earlier this spring Kerber became the first top seed to ever lose in the first round at Roland Garros.
Yep, it’s been that kind of year.
“I know how good I practice the last few weeks, but, yeah, sometimes we have these days, and at the end, this is sport," she concludes. :You never know what's going to happen."