{"id":1201,"date":"2017-01-15T10:07:35","date_gmt":"2017-01-15T15:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/?p=1201"},"modified":"2017-01-15T10:07:35","modified_gmt":"2017-01-15T15:07:35","slug":"angelique-kerber-australian-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2017\/01\/15\/angelique-kerber-australian-open\/","title":{"rendered":"Angelique Kerber Will Not Retain Her Australian Open Title"},"content":{"rendered":"

One year ago few would have suspected Angelique Kerber<\/strong> would have enjoyed quite such a meteoric rise. In just twelve months the German has picked up two Grand Slam<\/strong> titles and dethroned Serena<\/strong> Williams<\/strong> as world #1. She was the undisputed Queen of tennis in 2016, a year which she truly made her own.<\/p>\n

Yet 2017 is a new year with a distinctly different set of challenges. And two poor losses in Sydney<\/strong> and Brisbane<\/strong> suggest that the weight of expectation is weighing heavily on her shoulders. The early signs seem to be suggesting that retention of her Australian Open<\/strong> title is going to be a mammoth task.<\/p>\n

Worrying Early Season Form<\/h2>\n

In her two tournaments this year, the world #1 has done little to prove she is performing at her peak. In Brisbane, she scraped through a scrappy encounter with the returning Ashleigh Barty<\/strong>.\u00a0After labouring to victory in her first match she came unstuck in the quarter-final against Elina Svitolina<\/strong>. The in-form Ukrainian polished Kerber off 6-4 3-6 6-3 to record her second straight victory over the world #1. Less than a week later she was defeated again, this time by another rising star in Daria Kasatkina<\/strong> in Sydney. The Russian won their match in Brisbane 7-6(2) 6-2.<\/p>\n

Angelique Kerber suggested after her defeat in Brisbane<\/a> that pre-Grand Slam form does not necessarily matter. While this may be true of maybe a Serena Williams or a Stan Wawrinka<\/strong>, you feel Kerber is the type of player who needs a run of matches ahead of a major. Two straight defeats was far from the ideal preparation.<\/p>\n

The heavy tie-break defeat is a notable concern for a player renowned for her usual tie-break prowess. Last year she held an 11-3 record<\/a> in them demonstrating a mental toughness in important moments. The 7-2 tie-break battering she suffered at the hands of Kasatkina was her heaviest since losing to Serena Williams at the 2014 US Open<\/strong>. Could this be a sign of mental nervousness or was it simply one poor tie break?<\/p>\n

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Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n