This was published 7 months ago
Mothers’ club dwindles as Kerber and Osaka exit first round
Half an hour into her return-to-work match, Angelique Kerber stood at the baseline and glared at her long-time coach, fairly boiling inside.
Kerber had dropped serve three times to gift-wrap the first set for Danielle Collins, a ferociously competitive American who, as a child, would have ripped through Christmas ribbon with her teeth.
Angelique Kerber at Melbourne Park on Tuesday in her first match at a major tournament since returning from maternity leave.Credit: Alessandra Tarantino
The court was baking under a cloudless January sky, the afternoon sun was playing havoc with her ball toss and a light breeze, as much as it reached the two women on court, offered only teasing relief.
Kerber, an Australian Open winner, former world No.1 and a 35-year-old woman playing her first major tournament since spending 18 months away from the tour on maternity leave, shared her frustrations with Torben Beltz in a short, sharp, Germanic burst.
When asked what was said between the pair, Kerber laughed that they had so many exchanges during this long, frustrating match it was difficult to remember one from another. But in that moment, the fateful words of Kerber’s fellow working mum Naomi Osaka were echoing in her thoughts.
The rational adult in both women understands that winning grand slam matches when you have just rejoined the professional tour after having a baby is as likely as divine conception. The champion player in them rarely listens to this voice of reason – or anyone else’s – when it comes to what they can and can’t achieve on a tennis court.
As Osaka put it after her straight sets first round loss to Caroline Garcia, “I’m delusional enough to think I could win the tournament.”
Kerber expressed the same sentiment in another way after losing to Collins in three sets (6-2, 3-6, 6-1).
“Of course, you have played here, you have won the tournament and you want to get far in the draw,” she said. “But on the other side, it is my first real tournament and I know that it needs time.”
The player that Collins will next meet, tournament top seed Iga Swiatek, progressed comfortably through the first round, while past champion Victoria Azarenka, another member of the WTA mother’s club, won her opening match in three sets.
Naomi Osaka on court Monday night in her loss to Caroline Garcia.Credit: The Age
Kerber shares a couple of things with Osaka, most notably a US Open and Australian Open title and career high No.1 ranking. Kerber publicly announced she was pregnant and taking a break from the tour in August 2022 and in Feburary last year, gave birth to daughter Liana. She returned to the professional circuit at the start of this year.
Like Osaka, Kerber remains convinced that her time away from the sport shouldn’t stop her from climbing back into the top ranks of the tour.
“It is a long way to be back and play on the high level again,” she said. “On the other side, I have the experience, I know how it is, I have played so many grand slams over the years. I am more trying to find my rhythm, be on court and feeling good again.”
Within the scoreline of her nearly two hour match against Collins, there was enough to suggest Kerber is not on a fool’s errand.
Collins is renowned as one of the most unrelenting players on tour. A runner-up here two years ago, she plays with a simple philosophy of hitting the ball hard. If that doesn’t work, she hits in harder. In 2022, when Collins was enjoying her career-best run at Melbourne Park, her quarter-final opponent, Alize Cornet, remarked that she possessed next-level intensity. “She’s like a lion,” Alize said.
Extracting this match from the lion’s jaws was always going to be difficult for Kerber but, as the second set wore on, she started to show glimpses of the player who won here in 2016.
Her service picked up speed, her forehand started landing on target and, as she slapped a perfectly placed winner down the line, Kerber reminded us why, all those years ago, she got the better of Serena Williams in their epic three-set final.
While the improvements were enough to win the second set, Kerber knows she has many more matches to play before she can sustain it against someone like Collins.
“I didn’t really find my rhythm today, to be honest,” she said. “I was trying to fight until the last point but at the end I was not really hitting the ball as good as I’d played the last few days. She played good in important moments, she hit the balls and was really aggressive.″
For Osaka and Kerber, the Australian summer is over before it really got started. For Collins, a second round date with Swiatek is something any tennis fan can sink their teeth into.
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