“I don’t know how the week was,” said world No. 2 Angelique Kerber on Sunday, "because I’m really tired.”
It’s an assessment that casual and hardcore tennis fans might want to consider echoing. The knee-jerk reaction to Kerber’s 6-3, 6-1 loss to Karolina Pliskova in Cincinnati was that the German folded with the No. 1 ranking for the taking. Serena Williams’ relative struggles in 2016 combined with Kerber’s all-surface consistency meant that the American was in danger of surrendering the top spot on tour for the first time in 184 weeks. Fresh off a straight-sets victory over Simona Halep in the semis, Kerber’s coronation appeared to be at hand.
But the Australian Open champion wasn’t able to make the necessary final push, just as she wasn’t at Wimbledon and the Olympic Games, where she also finished second. (Could there be a more fitting world No. 2?) This is not a slight considering the compressed summer schedule. Kerber has posted all of these impressive results, including a trip to the semifinals of the Rogers Cup, in a roughly month-and-a-half span across three continents. With the spotlight intensifying following her maiden major title, and after having dealt with illness during the clay-court season, Kerber has demonstrated what so many Top 10 players in the WTA have lacked: deep runs in big tournaments, week after week.