Top 20 breakthroughs in professional tennis circuit this year: Part 12 – Tennis Special
4. Angelique Kerber (Germany)
I would have really liked to place Angelique Kerber on top of my list of top-20 breakthroughs of the running season but I guess number four spot is quite justifying for her. The 24-year-old German diva has been the real tennis
sensation from her country this year. Her phenomenal game play and naturally-gifted tennis skills give her the competitive edge over all other rivals.
Kerber’s success story this season has been nothing less than a dream. She took off the season as the 32nd ranked but stormed into the elite Top-10 rankings with some consistent performances with the racket. Her left-handed
angled strokes cause some serious troubles for her rivals and she uses her mighty forehand to the perfection. Kerber had a huge impact on the WTA Tour this year and attained her career-best ranking of world number 6 by the end of August.
The 24-year-old beauty had the best possible start to the 2012 WTA season, reaching the semi-finals of the opening tournaments in Auckland and Hobart, and later finishing in the third round of the Australian open Grand Slam event.
Her initial impetus moved her five places up in the WTA Premier rankings but she got her first real breakthrough in Paris. Kerber won her maiden WTA championship title, after defeating the likes of Lucie Safarova, Monica Niculescu, Maria Sharapova, Yanina
Wickmayer and Marion Bartoli in the final.
She kept her wining roll in Indian Wells and reached the semi-final round before stooping to the world number one, Victoria Azarenka, in straight sets. A dismal run in Miami was immediately followed by an all-round brilliant performance
in Copenhagen, Denmark. Kerber stunned every one by beating two former world number one players, Jelena Jankovic and Caroline Wozniacki, in successive matches to claim her second championship trophy of the season.
The German youngster then moved on Stuttgart, where she finished in the quarter-finals but suffered a third round exit at the Madrid Masters. She returned to form on the clay courts of Rome and went all the way to the semis, before
falling against Sharapova. Kerber’s other major breakthrough came at the Roland Garros French Open, where she went till the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time, losing to Sara Errani in the round of eight.
Kerber had another title shot in Eastbourne but it was time for the Austrian tennis prodigy, Tamira Paszek, to claim glory and the German lost by 7-5, 3-6, 5-7, in the final match. Kerber improved her game even more for the Wimbledon
Championships campaign and went all the way to the semi-finals of the grass-court Grand Slam. She lost to the Pole number one Agnieszka Radwanska, 3-6, 4-6.
The German number one was also the quarter-finalist at the London Olympics but missed out another huge title match at Cincinnati Masters after that. She lost to Li Na of China, 6-1, 3-6, 1-6, in the title final of the WTA Premier-level
tournament. Kerber’s recent performances include a fourth round appearance at the US Open, semi-final finish at Tokyo and a quarter-final run in Beijing, to sustain her world number six spot.
No doubt Kerber has been one of the most consistent tennis performers of the current season but her knack of losing the big matches might cost her too much in the future. I can see her in the Top-10 rankings for a lot more weeks
to come in the future.
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