Angelique Kerber knocks on WTA’s hall of fame: “That would be amazing”
Angelique Kerber has her first opportunity to complete a career Grand Slam by adding the French Open to her trophy case, but the circumstances are pretty much against her.
A career Grand Slam is obtained when one player wins all four major Grand Slam tournaments. Since the Open Era (1968), just six women have earned such an honour. Angelique’s remaining target is obviously Roland Garros after she won the Australian Open and US Open in 2016 and Wimbledon in 2018. If the German wins in Paris, she will join a very select group of WTA players which includes Margaret Court, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova and her compatriot Steffi Graf, who was described as “simply superhuman” by Angie.
In a WTA interview, Kerber declared she would be glad if Steffi Graf could give her any tips on managing emotions when playing for such a great achievement. "I haven't spoken to Steffi yet about doing the career Grand Slam. But if I had the opportunity, I would like to speak to Steffi about this, because why not? She knows the feelings and she knows the pressures you're under, and how to achieve something like that,"
Unfortunately for Angie, the odds for her to win French Open are pretty small as she had a pretty short clay adventure with only four matches played. Moreover, she got out of her last one (Madrid) with an ankle injury. Fortunately for her, the injury is not that bad. "I think it's not too serious", said Kerber in a press conference.
The German admitted that she couldn’t prepare properly: "It's not the best clay court preparation. I was looking forward this year to the clay court season and now first with the virus, now with the ankle, it's not really good sign yet."
Angelique Kerber first thought about the opportunity to obtain the career Grand Slam moments after winning Wimbledon last year against Serena Williams. "I first started thinking about it within a few minutes of coming off Centre Court, but that was because the media was asking me”.
Kerber added that she doesn’t want to make her mission even harder by putting extra pressure on herself, so she said she is not focusing on obtaining the career Grand Slam: ”I'm trying not to put too much pressure on myself. If I had the chance to complete the career Grand Slam, that would be amazing, but I'm not thinking about this right now, as it's still a long way off. You have to win the first round, and then keep going through the draw, before you think about it too much."
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2Esywy7
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