Angelique Kerber - The German tennis saviour ...

When you are facing a 21 time Grand Slam Champion and perhaps, the best woman player to to ever hold a tennis racquet, you have no option but to get your 'A' game on the court.

Angelique Kerber did exactly that and bought some more because that's what was needed.

A match worthy of a Grand Slam final and a shocking result.
A series of unforced errors and a weak first serve did not help Serena's cause and Kerber capitalised on that to become the first German woman, since Steffi Graf, to win a Grand Slam title.
In the process, she also stalled Serena's bid to win a 22nd title which would have tied her with Graf. 

For a country that gave legends like Becker and Graf, Germany has found it quite difficult to produce Grand Slam champions. The very fact that Kerber is the first German to have won a singles title, this century, is quite a disservice to the legacy that they left behind.
The German Tennis Federation is, perhaps, the largest tennis federation in the world with more than 1.8 million members but unfortunately they don't have much to show for the effort.
It was only Michael Stich who won a Wimbledon in the early nineties and made it to couple of finals post that win. Barring Rainer Schuttler and Sabine Lisicki, no other German came anywhere close to winning a Grand Slam singles title.
With Kerber and Lisicki around there are chances that we could see a German Grand Slam winner in the near future.

Which brings us to a larger debate on should such winners take it upon themselves to ensure that they train and produce champions after retiring?

We'll dwell upon this in my next blog ...