If you only have five minutes and still want to know how the US Open game between Angelique Kerber and Sloane Stephens went, Stephens’ service game at 5-3 in the first set is recommended. There was to be seen: massive serves and grandiose returns, blatant angles in the tactical baseline game, crazy running paths, spectacular strokes and even more spectacular counterattacks. But there was also to be seen: double faults, shaky nerves, shaky hands, grotesque balls out of bounds – in short: everything that makes tennis an exciting and fascinating sport.
Kerber won this third-round game 5: 7, 6: 2, 6: 3, and as a five-minute summary, the 5: 3 in the third set would also be good. Or the 2: 1 in the second. Oh, let’s be honest: It was a highlight game, you could watch every, really every five minutes of this game and you would be completely thrilled.
“It was an up and down – at some point I stopped thinking about the score, not just looking at every rally, but every single stroke,” said Kerber afterwards: “In the end it was a mental fight because it was incredibly difficult against them What to play is: Her serve is good, she plays very high and always wants to move forward. I’m more of a defensive player. “
It was an interesting game because two players from completely different ends of the tennis spectrum met: Stephens, the elegant one who would rather play tennis than work; plays the balls a little higher over the net with a lot of spin and uses every square centimeter of the field; However, she makes slight mistakes every now and then, and then experiences small crises in matches. And Kerber, the indefatigable, interpreted tennis victories as the reward for hard work; lets the opponents dominate sometimes and can run every square centimeter of the field; who patiently waits for slight mistakes and mercilessly uses every crisis of the opponent, no matter how small – or brings about these crises with her flat counterattacks.
Stephens looked like she was neither afraid nor respectful of Kerber
So a duel of the approach to this sport, at the beginning the elegant dominated. Stephens just sent her backhand cross on a spectacular journey again and again, the ball mostly touched the line and then reached the square centimeters off the field – the one that even Kerber could no longer run. The American reacted calmly to attacks by Kerber, which are truly dangerous, sometimes just blocking the ball along the line. That was almost cheeky, because that’s usually one of Kerber’s strengths.
Stephens looked like she was neither afraid nor respectful of Kerber – in the past nine years she had won all four duels, but most of them took place in seasons or phases (2015, ’17 and ’18) when it wasn’t particularly good ran at Kerber. This time it was a duel on equal terms, and it wasn’t that Kerber had played badly in the first set; after the weak start, she bravely fights her way up. Stephens was just a little more aggressive, courageous and therefore more successful in the moment that decided such a sentence.
Just as the first round was a Sloane Stephens sentence, so the second was an Angelique Kerber thing. Her strokes were more powerful and, interestingly, more precise; But that’s the way it is with Kerber: When she acts self-confidently, speed and precision add up, and suddenly the opponent becomes shorter, more wobbly, no longer invulnerable. For someone who is not familiar with both styles of play, 98 percent of the rallies must have looked the same, and yet one set ended 5: 7 and the other 6: 2 from Kerber’s point of view.
Kerber proves how great she can play when she appears confident
The third movement: an open-faced duel that was not only exciting, but a real treat, because both tried desperately to impose their will on the other. “Then there are a few points that decide about such a match,” said Kerber afterwards. Wait a minute: Didn’t she just say that she only thought from point to point? “Yes, it is so that especially in tight moments, in the third sentence for example, you notice that it is now about every single rally – it will also be a mental duel,” she said. “But then it’s the art of staying with yourself and flipping the switch, being a little braver.” So it was at the end of the decisive round: Kerber took control, Stephens made the mistakes.
It seems like she’s feeling that groove again at the tournament she won in 2016. She defeated the winner from 2017, and now, contrary to expectations, there is no duel against the winner from 2018 and 2020: The only 18-year-old Leylah Fernandez (Canada) defeated Naomi Osaka 5: 7, 7: 6 (2), 6 : 4.
“I now notice that the respect of the others is back, that is of course good,” summed up Kerber. “The fitness is there and I know that I can win close matches against really good players. That leads to a calm where you say: ‘Keep calm, the chance will come.'”
Kerber is therefore self-confidently coping with this US Open, and how great she can play when she appears self-confidently, that she showed against Stephens. Should she forget, she can watch this game again for five minutes. It doesn’t matter which one.
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