Kerber Stuns Serena for First Grand Slam Trophy.
Seventh seed Angelique Kerber of Germany produced the form of her life to stun Serena Williams and captured the Australian Open women’s singles title on Saturday.
The 28-year-old relied on her super solid defensive game to upset the defending champion 6-4 3-6 6-4. She is the first German to win in Melbourne since Steffi Graf in 1994.
“When I played in the first round I was a match point down. And here I am now after playing the final with Serena. My dream came true tonight. My whole life I work really hard. Now I’m a Grand Slam champion. It’s unbelievable,” said Kerber who will reach a career high at No 2 in the world on Monday.
Serena said: “Angelique, you are the best in this tournament. I’m so happy for you. Let me be the first to congratulate you.”
Serena, after falling 1-3 behind, fought hard with aggressive groundstrokes to rally for three all but a string of unforced errors saw her drop a service in the ninth game. Though Serena fought back to 4-5, Kerber played solid tennis in the next game, caught up with Serena shot by shot to force errors from the American who lost the 38 minute opening set after the ball tapped the net cord and fell on her side.
In the second set Serena cut down the number of her unforced errors and intensified her attack to manage a break from the German which was enough to sail her through the second set 6-3.
In the thrilling decisive set, Kerber was engaged in a long battle with Serena in the ninth game that features some high quality tennis and the tenacity of both women. In the end Serena served a double fault and sprayed a forehand long to hand the break for the German to lead 4-2 and went on to surge at 5-2.
Serena then raised the level of her game to serve for 3-5 and managed a break to follow closely at 4-5. But Kerber hanged in tough, running shot after shot from her opponent in the next game until the American lost patience by making two straight errors in the last two points.
