NEW YORK—As Angelique Kerber walked down the tunnel in Arthur Ashe Stadium before her semifinal on Thursday night, she was stopped by ESPN’s Pam Shriver. It was time for one of the obligatory pre-match interviews that the players seem to hate and most of the fans I know could do without.
This time, though, there was some breaking news to discuss: With Serena Williams’ loss to Karolina Pliskova a few minutes earlier, Kerber had just clinched her spot as the new WTA No. 1, becoming the first German to do it since Steffi Graf and, at 28, the oldest to reach that position for the first time.
But Kerber didn’t want to hear about it.
“I’m just happy to be in the semis,” she said without cracking a smile. “And I’m looking forward to this match.”
For Kerber, as for any top player, being No. 1 is a great honor, but winning Grand Slam titles is why they play the game. Serena’s loss hadn’t just put Kerber at the top of the rankings, it had left her with a much clearer path to her second major title of 2016. This was no time to bask.
“It was not so easy to go on the court,” Kerber said later, “because I knew it actually before that if Serena lost, of course, that I will be the No. 1. So it was not so easy mentally, but I was trying to, again, not putting too much pressure on myself.”
So Kerber pulled her visor low, put her game face on, and stayed focused on the task at hand through her mostly routine, 87-minute, 6-4, 6-3 win over Caroline Wozniacki. While the German is ranked 74 places ahead of the Dane, this match was still a test of her new status. These two women had been facing off since 2008, and Kerber led their head-to-head by a slim 7-5. It was Wozniacki, the younger player by two years, who had jumped out of the gates and reached No. 1 by age 20. Kerber, meanwhile, was the late bloomer who only cracked the Top 10 for the first time at 24. Had she left Wozniacki in the dust completely?