Angelique Kerber ended her career after the Olympic Games in Paris in the summer. She enjoys life as a mother – she has more time for family and normality. But German women’s tennis also needs the 36-year-old.
Letting go is sometimes not that easy. But Angelique Kerber is sure of herself – and six months after her emotional retirement from the big tennis stage, she is beginning to enjoy her new freedom with her family more and more. The final point at the Olympic Games in Paris, the last quarter-final on the red clay in Roland Garros, will remain unforgettable for the former German model player, who now wants to spend even more time with her almost two-year-old daughter Liana: “That’s the most important thing for me. Children grow up so quickly.”
Finally: “The completely normal life”
Instead of getting ready for the new season with hard training, after all these years on the professional tour, she enjoys the Christmas season without regrets or a guilty conscience, and can even celebrate the New Year at home and not “down under” in Australia, where the tennis traditionally takes place -Season begins. “Just normal life,” she says in an interview with NDR: “Just drink a coffee, go for a walk. Live consciously – not always in a hectic pace. Feel everyday life, no longer have to fly somewhere every week and stay in a hotel to live.”
Consultant – new role at DTB
However, idleness does not always succeed. “I think I still need a little bit for that,” reveals the 2016 Olympic silver medalist. The first professional step into life after tennis was taken surprisingly quickly with the German Tennis Federation (DTB) shortly before Christmas. As an advisor, the best German player since Steffi Graf will support the women’s elite team at the Billie Jean King Cup and especially the young players. Because: There is a lot of catching up to do, says Kerber. A role as a mentor is being considered, conducting one-on-one discussions and coaching individually or in a group.
Serve Kerber for the youngsters
Learning first hand could be the motto. Serve Kerber: “What I have learned and what I have become as a person, I have become through sport. Through the setbacks, but also through the successes.” A stroke of luck for German women’s tennis – and the coaching team that Angelique Kerber coached herself during her career: Rainer Schüttler, the team captain in the Billie Jean King Cup, as well as Torben Beltz, who the DTB recently appointed as head women’s national coach has committed.
The occasional strangeness with the new phase of life should be over for Kerber at the beginning of the new year. Media tasks included, which the three-time Grand Slam winner actually only wanted to face for a few months after retiring in the summer. On holiday with her daughter in the Maldives, for example, where she was able to enjoy the sun, sea and a bit of (show) tennis.
Choice of athlete: Laudator for Darja Varfolomeev
She recently showed that the media needs are now easy for her as she gave a laudatory speech for the “Sportswoman of the Year”, Darja Varfolomeev. It was a clear pleasure for her to honor the Olympic champion in rhythmic gymnastics – which would not always have been the case in previous years. The party afterwards could be a little longer, joked the two-time “Sportswoman of the Year” (2016 and 2018) and added with a smile: “I’m no longer preparing for the new season.”
The Olympics bring back emotional memories
This also leaves her time for a retrospective of 22 years of the tennis circus, especially the return after her pregnancy and the finale at the Olympics. After the baby break, “I really started from scratch,” the Kiel native, who was born on January 18, 1988 in Bremen and has family roots in Puszczykowo, Poland, where she spends the holidays as usual, remembers many a setback on the way back to life Tennis spotlight: “When I went running in the forest, I really thought: Okay, no chance of coming back.”
Kerber’s trademark: will and discipline
Far from it: It was another year of personal success, peppered with all sorts of emotions: “I couldn’t have imagined it better to end up like that at the Olympics.” Coming back as a mother after the pregnancy was something very special. “I wanted to give it my all again. The will that I naturally have within me and the discipline helped me get back into shape step by step.”
In fact, the 36-year-old thrilled a global audience once again and, as always, “left her heart on the pitch.” Only this time the emotions spilled over on and off the pitch after the extremely narrow quarter-final defeat against the eventual Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen from China. “I think,” Kerber describes it in the NDR interview, “you could see that I fought until the end – and somehow left my entire career on the pitch.”
Things came full circle in Paris
It was another nice phase in her career – especially because “Liana always traveled with me.” She consciously took the time to think about everything that was to come. But quietly and secretly – and increasingly violently – the decision to say goodbye was made. Two or three weeks before the Olympics, she finally felt exactly that the “final whistle” was about to sound where she played her first singles at a Grand Slam tournament in 2007. “Announcing this beforehand was extremely important to me,” she describes her motivation, “wanting to experience this highlight with the fans. And yes, it was very emotional.” Things came full circle in Roland Garros.
Kerber: “At some point every journey comes to an end”
The fact that she didn’t have to stop because she no longer met the requirements is another important piece of the mosaic for “Angie”, as she is called everywhere, on the self-chosen path to tennis retirement. “In the end I showed once again: I can keep up with the top players,” said the 14-time winner on the professional tour, who was number one in the tennis scene for 34 weeks. “Of course you’re a little sad when it’s actually over. But at some point every journey comes to an end.”
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Sports current | 12/18/2024 | 10:17 am
