Angelique Kerber had the best season of
her career in 2012 where she made it to the semi-finals of Wimbledon and booked
a spot in the Year end championships and ended the year in the top 5 for her
first top 10 finish.
Kerber had a sluggish start to the year.
She started her season in Brisbane where she won first 2 matches to make it to
the quarter-finals but then bowed out to eventual runner-up Anastasia
Pavlyuchenkova. Kerber looked very rusty in her first 3 matches. At the moment
she is playing in Sydney and will be playing her quarter-final match tomorrow
against former U.S Open and French Open champion, Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Kuznetsova is coming off a 6 months injury lay off, and has looked strong in
her first 2 main draw matches in Sydney where she took out Goerges in the
opening round and Wozniacki in the second round. It will be a tough test for
Kerber tomorrow.
Angelique Kerber will be seeded 5th
for the Australian Open 2013.
Let us what the chances of Kerber doing
well at the Australian Open are.
Angelique Kerber and Australian Open – Based on the history of 5th
seeds at Australian Open
Kerber and her fans will be happy to know
that a 5th seed has won the Australian Open before, although only
once in the past 25 years. It happened in the recent past when 5th
seeded Maria Sharapova went all the way to lift the trophy and she did that in
style, beating the then top seed Justine Henin in the quarter-finals, 3rd
seed Jelena Jankovic in the semi-finals and 4th seed Ana Ivanovic in
the final, all in straight sets.
Kerber
has a 50% chance of making it to the quarter-finals or better of
Australian Open, based on 5th seeds’ history at the Australian Open.
She has a 13% chance of making it out of the quarter-finals.
Interesting thing to note is that a 5th
seed has lost in the 1st round of the Australian Open only once
before in the past 25 years. It
happened way back in 1995, when 5th seeded Gabriela Sabatini lost in
the first round in straight sets at the hands of Marianne Werdel-Witmeyer.
Werdel-Witmeyer went on to reach the semi-finals of the Australian Open where
she lost in straight sets to the top seed Arantxa Sánchez Vicario.
A thing of concern for Kerber might be
the fact that during the past 7 years a 5th seed has managed to make
it out of the 4th round only once, in 2008 (Maria Sharapova won the
title).
Will Kerber be able to turn around the
recent trend or will she follow the trend set by her fellow 5th
seeded players at the Australian Open?
Angelique Kerber and Australian Open – Based on Kerber’s past
performances at Australian Open
Kerber is a poor 5-5 at Australian Open.
Her best showing on Melbourne tennis courts came in 2010 and 2012, when she
made it to the 3rd round, only to lose to then 3rd seeded
Kuznetsova in 2010 and then 4th seeded Maria Sharapova in 2012.
An interesting thing to note is that
Kerber has never lost to an un-seeded player at the Australian Open, and all
her 5 losses have come at the hands of players ranked above her.
2008
– [25] Francesca Schiavone
2009 – [6]
Venus Williams
2010 - [3] Svetlana Kuznetsova
2011 - [29] Dominika Cibulkova
2012 - [4] Maria Sharapova
*Seeds are represented in the brackets.
This should be interesting now that she
is seeded 5th, and if she follows the pattern of not losing to a
player ranked below her at the Australian Open, she will definitely make it to
the quarter-finals, where she may face one of the top 4 seeds if the seedings
hold.
Kerber has the game, the fire power and
the will to go deep in the Grand Slams. Has her time come, and will she make
her way to the trophy remains to be seen.
How far do you see Kerber going into the
Australian Open?
For a preview of other players, please refer to:
Sara Errani and Australian Open 2013
Janko Tipsarevic and Australian Open 2013
Petra Kvitova and Australian Open 2013
Janko Tipsarevic and Australian Open 2013
Petra Kvitova and Australian Open 2013
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