The US Open this year saw second seed, Germany’s Angelique Kerber lift the title. By leaving New York City with the trophy in the bag, Kerber not only increases her total Grand Slam titles tally to two but also rises to world number one. The German was already assured of the number one ranking after the demise of Serena Williams in the last four, for the second year in a row.
Last week’s titlist
Amazing and incredible, those are the two words most frequently heard every time new world number one Angelique Kerber describes her monumental 2016 season. Her rise to the top of the game began all the way back in 2011 at the very Grand Slam tournament she just won, the US Open. Ranked 92nd at that time, Kerber surprised everyone by putting together a fairytale run to the last four where she was stopped by the eventual champion Samantha Stosur.
The German continued her steady rise into the top five the following year, highlighted by quarterfinal and semifinal appearances at the French Open and Wimbledon Championships respectively alongside her first top 10 finish in her career, closing out the season as world number five. That same year, she won her first two titles, at the Open GDF Suez in Paris and e-Boks Open in Copenhagen.
2013 and 2014 saw Kerber maintain her status as a top 10 player, spending most of her time in the rankings floating inside the bottom half the top 10. Throughout both years, she made one Grand Slam quarterfinal (Wimbledon in 2014) and the round of 16 in five other appearances at the Grand Slams. In late 2013, she won her third title in Linz. She did reach four finals in 2014 but finished as runner-up in all of them.
At the beginning of 2015, things look to go downhill when the German suffered an opening round at loss at the Australian Open, her first opening round exit since the 2011 Wimbledon Championships. After this defeat, she went on to win just three of her next nine matches and come April, she was out of the top 10 for the first time since her top 10 debut in the middle of 2012.
It was at the Premier-level Family Circle Cup in April where Kerber began her revival as she won her first title since 2013 and the fourth of her career. She then swept three of the next four Premier events, Stuttgart, Birmingham and Stanford to increase her title count to seven. She finished the year back in the top 10 once again as world number 10.
After a bright start to 2016 by reaching the Brisbane final, she took home her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open and recorded her top two debut in the rankings. In April, she defended a title for the first time by winning Stuttgart and three months later, she went all the way to the Wimbledon final where she was beaten by Serena Williams. Last month, Kerber soared to even greater heights by contributing the silver medal for Germany at the Olympics and then made the Cincinnati final the following week.
The German entered the US Open as the second seed and was one of the four women in contention for the world number one ranking. Winning the title would seal the deal for Kerber and she did just that. Along the way, she took out the likes of Polona Hercog, Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, Catherine Bellis and 14th seed Petra Kvitova to make the last eight. She then roared past seventh seed Roberta Vinci and two-time runner-up Caroline Wozniacki to secure her berth in the final. She then dropped her only set of the fortnight in the final against 10th seed Karolina Pliskova, who defeated her in Cincinnati for the title. Coming back from a break down, a gutsy effort from the German saw her prevail 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 for her second Grand Slam title.
Kerber continues to make more history in her amazing and incredible 2016 season. The US Open title meant that Kerber became the first player not named Serena Williams since Justine Henin in 2007 to complete the sweep of Grand Slam hard court titles, having won the Australian Open earlier this year. Moreover, she creates history for her nation as she becomes the first German player to win the title since Steffi Graf in 1996.
The world number one spot saw changes for the first time in 186 weeks (since February 2013) as Kerber becomes the 22nd woman to achieve it, also the first German since Graf in 1987 and the first player to make her debut as world number one since Victoria Azarenka in January 2012. Serena Williams’ 186 consecutive weeks atop the rankings sees her tie with Graf for longest consecutive weeks as number one.
On her second Grand Slam title, Kerber reflected saying "It's been an incredible year so far, the best of my career. There have been a lot of up and downs, so that's why I'm really happy to be sitting here now as a grand slam champion and world No. 1." She then went on to comment on her world number one ranking achievement stating "It means a lot to me because I've been working so hard in the last few years. To see that hard work paying off is very good. It's just amazing. To win my second Grand Slam here, especially in New York, is really special for me."
Among the seeds who were early casualties at this year’s tournament were 18th seed Barbora Strycova, 23rd seed Daria Kasatkina, 27th seed Sara Errani, 28th seed CoCo Vandeweghe, 29th seed Ana Ivanovic and 32nd seed Monica Puig who all lost in the first round. There was order restored in the following round with 15th seed Timea Bacsinszky and 16th seed Stosur being the only seeds to crash out.
The top 16 seeds did well, with 11 of them making the last 16. Come the quarterfinal stage, only five remained with the three dissenters being surprise packages Ana Konjuh and Anastasija Sevastova, both first-time Grand Slam quarterfinalists along with Wozniacki. There, Serena Williams beat fifth seed Simona Halep, Pliskova knocked out Konjuh, Wozniacki breezed past Sevastova and Kerber sent Vinci packing. Pliskova then gave Williams her second consecutive semifinal defeat in New York as the Czech overpowered the American in straight sets. In the other semifinal, Kerber raced past Wozniacki in straight sets.
Rankings
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Kerber and Serena Williams swap places in the rankings, with the German claiming the world number one spot. Pliskova rises to a new career-high ranking of sixth, pushing Venus Williams down one spot to seventh. A round of 16 appearance in New York sees Carla Suárez Navarro move back into the top 10, from 12th to eighth. Caroline Garcia and Timea Babos, who both reached the third round rise from 33rd to 24th and 34th to 26th respectively.
Wozniacki is back in the top 30 for the first time in four months, surging from 74th to 29th. Sevastova records a new career-high ranking of 32nd while Yaroslava Shvedova, who made the round of 16 in New York, rises from 52nd to 43rd. Konjuh leaps 40 places to a new career-high ranking of number 52 while Carina Witthoeft moves up from 102nd to 85th after reaching the third round in New York.
On the other hand, last year’s runner-up Vinci exits the top 10 after failing to defend her runner-up points, the Italian falling from eighth to 15th. Errani, who made the third round last year, drops out of the top 30 for the first time since 2012, from 28th to 36th, after an opening round loss. Ekaterina Makarova dips 13 spots to 42nd after a first round exit, having reached the round of 16 in 2015. Another quarterfinalist from 2015, Kristina Mladenovic, drops 14 places to number 51 after falling out in the second round.
Americans Madison Brengle and Shelby Rogers, who both reached the third round last year, fall from 49th to 62nd and 50th to 67th after both fell at the second hurdle. Germans Sabine Lisicki and Mona Barthel, who both made the round of 16 and third round last year respectively, exit the top 100 after both faltered in the first round. Lisicki drops from 84th to 113th while Barthel dips 18 places to sit behind Lisicki at 114th.
Road to Singapore
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In the race to the WTA Finals, Kerber overtakes Serena Williams for the top spot after winning the US Open. Pliskova soars from ninth into the top five standings at number four. Vinci and Venus Williams improve from 18th and 15th respectively and both are now tied at 13th. Kvitova surges four places to 21st after a last 16 appearance with Sevastova not far behind at 28th, the Latvian moving up from 46th. Wozniacki cracks the top 40 standings, rising from 98th to 32nd while Shvedova improves from 48th to 38th.
Konjuh soars into the top 50 from 87th, the Croatian currently placed at 47th. Japan’s Naomi Osaka is up six places from 60th to 54th after making the third round in New York. A further five players who reached the third round also improve in the race, namely Kateryna Bondarenko (63rd to 58th), Monica Niculescu (71st to 63rd), Witthoeft (84th to 77th), Varvara Lepchenko (85th to 78th) and Lesia Tsurenko (114th to 85th).
This week’s action
The Coupe Banque Nationale held in Quebec City begins this week, with top seed and local hope Eugenie Bouchard leading the charge alongside second seed and defending champion Annika Beck. The tour also begins its shift to Asian swing as Tokyo will host the International level Hashimoto Sogyo Japan Women’s Open Tennis. Like Quebec City, top seed and local player Misaki Doi spearheads the draw alongside second seed and defending champion Yanina Wickmayer.