The German should probably avoid any mid-season trips to Australia in 2015. This past April, Angelique Kerber joined her Fed Cup teammates for a tie in Brisbane; they won the battle that weekend, but Kerber lost the war with jet lag over the next month, when she went out in the first round of three clay-court events. If she had avoided that slump, her year would have looked much better, and she almost certainly would have qualified for her third straight year-end championship.
Outside of her spring swoon, Kerber was her usual steady self, routinely reaching the quarterfinals or better at tournaments. But as with Agnieszka Radwanska, this wasn’t a year of progress for Kerber; the two retrievers, each firmly in their mid-20s, were swept aside by two younger, more offensive-minded players in Simona Halep and Genie Bouchard; the Canadian stopped Kerber at both the French Open and Wimbledon. Was this is a sign that defense doesn’t win titles, or at least earn high rankings, anymore on the women’s side? We’ll find out more in Kerber’s 2015 campaign.