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Why Kerber's Slump Impacts the WTA

Feb 17th 2017

Tennis is a brutal sport.  There is nowhere to hide.  When you lose, that loss is on you.  And while it is certainly preferable to be in the upper echelons of the game, being at the top is not all peaches and cream.  Being there means being a favorite.  There are expectations, and when you fail to deliver on them, you are put under a microscope.  Questions are asked and doubts expressed.  It is a situation that Angelique Kerber has sadly become quite familiar with in this early part of the season.

After a dream 2016 season, her 2017 has thus far turned into a nightmare. She is a dismal 4-4, her most recent loss coming just this week in Doha where she crashed out in her opening match to Daria Kasatkina.  She lost early in her title defense in Melbourne to young America CoCo Vandeweghe, and in the process, saw Serena Williams take back the Number 1 ranking.  In the German's defense, she was under the weather in Doha, but that reasoning aside, there is still plenty of fear that she will fall short of the promise so many saw in her after last year.

Angelique Kerber

Perhaps a big part of the reason that Kerber finds herself under arguably more scrutiny than other members and former members of the Top 10 is that she legitimately looked like she had staying power.  She had the odd loss here and there immediately following her Australian Open triumph, but overall, she had a remarkable season.  She backed up her title in Melbourne with a finalist showing at Wimbledon and then shocked everyone by bagging the second slam title of her career at the US Open, securing the Number 1 ranking in the process.  In short, she appeared to be a woman ready to shoulder major expectations. 

That Kerber, given the promise she showed, might ultimately crumble under the pressure of being the hunted, would be disappointing for any player.  Fans are likely more disheartened, however, because if she continues this path, she will be continuing the problem that has plagued the WTA the last several years.  Outside of Williams and to a lesser extent Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova, it has been a revolving door at the top of the women's game.  Multiple players have looked like they were ready to be Grand Slam contenders only to falter to varying degrees.  This represents a marketing problem for the WTA that the ATP, with the unprecedented consistency of the Big 4, has not had to face of late.  It is harder to sell tickets and negotiate television rights when the odds are less certain that a top-ranked player will be at the business end of a tournament.  It is also more difficult to build rivalries and compelling story lines when players are not regularly meeting due to sporadic early losses.  With Williams playing more sparingly and the extended absences of Azarenka and Sharapova, this issue is even more keenly felt, and unfortunately, there is no quick fix.

Kerber cannot fix this issue for the WTA herself, but finding a way to turn around her season in a hurry would unquestionably help.  More importantly, she can help her cause and career by getting back on track.  Fans should not give up hope that she can do that.  She accomplished too much in 2016 for it to have been a fluke.  She plays great defense.  She has added ample offense to her arsenal, and most importantly, she has improved her mental strength.  It is not too late for her to right the ship, but for her sake and the sake of the WTA, she needs to do so sooner rather than later.