US Open champ Kerber starting to like sound of No. 1 ranking

But this U.S. Open may prove to be where the 28-year-old Kerber started to find herself comfortable with all those accolades.

She played astonishingly clean tennis while extending the rallies to expose Karolina Pliskova’s average movement, winning 24 of the last 34 points and broke Pliskova twice to seal a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 victory for her second grand slam title of the year after her Australian Open breakthrough.

“It still sounds a little bit insane”, Kerber said a few hours later, the U.S. Open trophy by her side.

Kerber has finished a tiring eight-week overseas trip which included a silver medal at the Rio Olympics and culminated in her victory at Flushing Meadows for her second Grand Slam title.

Stay with Lob and Smash for more summary of the U.S. Open this year, as well previews of what is to come in the rest of the 2016 tennis season. Kerber was on the verge of being swept out of the tournament in straight sets in the first round against 64th-ranked Misaki Doi. “Now I’m at the top”, Kerber said. I just go to court and spend a lot of hours as well on gym, or just make a lot of sprints and movement.

“When I missed one shot I was like thinking about the shot the next few minutes and few shots”. I waited for this moment all my life, ” she said.

“You have to believe in your dreams”, she said.

Serena Williams faces a challenging new landscape in her continued pursuit of Grand Slam history thanks to the rise of a clutch of talented and fearless rivals led by new number one Angelique Kerber. Kerber also improves her career singles head to head record to 5-3 against Pliskova in their first ever Grand Slam match.

The German was back on top of her game with a hold for 4-3, running for a stinging forehand victor to the corner for game point that fully restored her morale.

Kerber beat Williams for the Australian Open title in January, then lost to her in the Wimbledon final in July, with Pliskova eliminating the American in the semi-finals here after beating her sister, Venus, in the fourth round. Nevertheless, her winning performance has steamrolled over her competition for several rounds now, and she does not appear to plan on letting up soon. “I took it, so I think this was really the shot of the match from my serve”. “After my first Grand Slam title in Australia I felt so much [more] confident”.

“And to being No. 1, of course now everybody will try to beat me and have nothing to lose”.

Compared to Serena, who turns 35 later this month, Kerber is among those young ones, although at 28 she’s the oldest woman to ascend to number one for the first time.

“It’s always tough to play against her [Pliskova]”.

But are Grand Slam titles the best way to measure a tennis player’s greatness?

The men’s final between Serbian world number one Novak Djokovic and Swiss player Stan Wawrinka will take place today. Two errors gave a break back to Kerber in the sixth game. “My goal is to give everything I have to be the best I can”. Right now, I don’t know if she has messaged me because my phone is somewhere, so I don’t know how many messages I have now. “I think this is really important for your confidence and you can go for it”.