Angelique Kerber is getting into her stride after her maternity leave. She hasn’t won three matches in a row for a long time. Now it’s time for a special duel
After a bumpy start, Angelique Kerber is getting better and better in her comeback after her maternity leave and can now look forward to a very special mother’s duel at the tennis classic in Indian Wells.
At the Masters 1000 event in the Californian desert, the former world number one will face her long-time friend Caroline Wozniacki in the round of 16. Like Kerber, the Dane is a mother (even of two) on the tour and has repeatedly provided Kerber with valuable advice in recent months.
“We’re good friends and we’ll still be friends after the match,” said Kerber after her surprising 6:4, 7:5 win over the Russian number 17 seed Veronika Kudermetova. It was the first time Kerber had won three matches in a row since May 2022. Back then, she had won the clay court tournament in Strasbourg. A few months later, she announced her pregnancy and gave birth to her daughter Liana in February last year
“It’s a completely different perception “
Since then, everything has changed for the three-time Grand Slam tournament winner. “I’ve actually loosened up and I’m also trying to put this perfectionism aside a bit,” she said at the start of the hard-court event, which has prize money of 9.26 million US dollars (around 8.5 million euros). “It’s a completely different perception, a completely different view. Winning and losing is no longer as dramatic as it used to be,” said the 36-year-old.
Perhaps not dramatically, but Kerber is still not indifferent to defeats. That’s why she had started to brood a little after the many defeats at the United Cup, the Australian Open and in Linz. She had only won against Australian Ajla Tomljanovic at the United Cup and her performance was a mystery to many when she arrived in Indian Wells. However, Kerber has often felt at home under the Californian sun and even reached the final in 2019. “It’s one of my favorite tournaments, so it’s especially good to win,” said Kerber.
Kerber and Wozniacki were the world number one
So now it’s Wozniacki, who unlike Kerber returned to the tennis tour last fall after the birth of her second child. The two friends first faced each other 14 years ago in Stockholm, and both have experienced a lot since then. Both have been world number one, both have suffered setbacks and both are now a little more relaxed as mothers.
“It will be a great match. We both know each other so well, there will be no secrets out there. Whoever is better on the day will win,” said Wozniacki, who beat the American Katie Volynets 6:2, 4:6, 6:0. “Of course we both want to win. But in the end, there are so many things that are more important than a tennis match,” said Kerber, summing up the basic attitudes of the two tennis mothers, which have changed over the years.
