{"id":16695,"date":"2016-01-31T09:04:37","date_gmt":"2016-01-31T17:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/kerber-upsets-williams-to-win-australian-title\/"},"modified":"2016-01-31T09:04:37","modified_gmt":"2016-01-31T17:04:37","slug":"kerber-upsets-williams-to-win-australian-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/kerber-upsets-williams-to-win-australian-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Kerber upsets Williams to win Australian title"},"content":{"rendered":"

MELBOURNE, Australia \u2014<\/strong> Serena Williams put up both hands after sending a forehand long and high over the baseline in the first set. She wanted nothing to do with yet another unforced error in her Australian Open final against Angelique Kerber.<\/p>\n

For the second time in as many majors, Williams fell short of equaling Steffi Graf\u2019s Open-era record of 22 Grand Slam singles titles.<\/p>\n

No. 7-seeded Kerber had never played in a major final and had lost five of her six previous career meetings with Williams, but she responded with a stunning 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 upset win over the six-time Australian Open champion.<\/p>\n

Williams had won the title every previous time she\u2019d reached the final at Melbourne Park, and was overwhelming favorite to continue that streak against Kerber, who joked she was \u201cone leg in the plane to Germany\u201d when she faced match point in her first-round win over Misaki Doi.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, every time I walk in this room, everyone expects me to win every single match, every single day of my life,\u201d Williams said in her post-match news conference. \u201cAs much as I would like to be a robot, I\u2019m not.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old Kerber used acute angles to keep Williams guessing, tossed in two drop shots for a crucial break in the long sixth game of the third set, and continually tried to pass the 21-time major winner or forced errors at the net.<\/p>\n

And she had five service breaks \u2014 two in the first, and three in third set \u2014 against the top-ranked Williams, who hadn\u2019t dropped a set in the previous six rounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy whole life I was working really hard and now I\u2019m here and I can say I\u2019m a Grand Slam champion,\u201d said Kerber, who had only reached the semifinals twice at the majors and hadn\u2019t been beyond the quarterfinals since Wimbledon in 2012. \u201cIt sounds really crazy and unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

She is the first German woman to win the Australian title since Graf in 1994, and is projected to rise to No. 2 in the rankings next week.<\/p>\n

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was quick to respond, saying \u201cIt was fascinating to see how courageously and with such nerves of steel how you prevailed against arguably the best player in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

And other congratulatory messages poured in.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy phone is exploding right now,\u201d Kerber said. \u201cIt\u2019s so good also for German tennis. After Steffi, now somebody won a Grand Slam.\u201d<\/p>\n

It took her 33 majors to win the title \u2014 sixth on the list for longest waits that is topped by 2015 U.S. Open champion Flavia Pennetta\u2019s 49.<\/p>\n

Williams admitted previously she became nervous and was stalled for a while trying to get to 18 major titles, to equal Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova\u2019s career marks in second spot in the Open era. For three majors, Williams didn\u2019t reach the quarterfinals, but when she finally won her 18th, it triggered a roll of four straight major titles.<\/p>\n

Now she\u2019s on 21.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was nervous before the match,\u201d Williams said. \u201cOnce it got started, it was so intense … I didn\u2019t really have time to be nervous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams won the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon titles last year before losing to Roberta Vinci in the U.S. Open semifinals.<\/p>\n

After being so close to a calendar-year Grand Slam in 2015, she has no chance to push for that honor in 2016 after losing the season\u2019s first major.<\/p>\n

Despite a rash of uncharacteristic unforced errors, Williams pushed Kerber all the way. She had never lost a major final that went three sets, and she had only lost to three players \u2014 twice to her sister Venus (U.S. Open 2001, Wimbledon 2008), and once each to Maria Sharapova (Wimbledon 2004) and Sam Stosur (U.S. Open 2011) .<\/p>\n

Kerber had a chance to serve for the match at 5-3 in the third but couldn\u2019t hold. Williams had a chance to level but dropped her serve, too. It finished when she hit a forehand volley long on championship point, her 46th unforced error.<\/p>\n

Kerber dropped her racket on the court and lay flat on her back as Williams walked around the net to embrace her.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had an attitude that I think a lot of people can learn from \u2014 to always stay positive and never give up,\u201d Williams said. \u201cIf I couldn\u2019t win, I\u2019m happy she did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kerber credited Williams with being an inspiration to a generation of players.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou created history, you are a champion, you are a really an unbelievably great person,\u201d Kerber said. \u201cSo congratulations for everything you did already.\u201d<\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic is chasing history on Sunday night, aiming to join Roy Emerson as the only six-time Australian Open champion. He\u2019s 5-0 in finals at Melbourne Park, and will be meeting Andy Murray, who is 0-4 in finals here.<\/p>\n

Murray was at Rod Laver Arena after midnight to see his older brother, Jamie, combine with Bruno Soares to beat Daniel Nestor and Radek Stepanek 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 for the men\u2019s doubles title.<\/p>\n

\u201cAndy, you should be in bed,\u201d the older sibling said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MELBOURNE, Australia \u2014 Serena Williams put up both hands after sending a forehand long and high over the baseline in the first set. She wanted nothing to do with yet another unforced error in her Australian Open final against Angelique Kerber. For the second time in as many majors, Williams fell short of equaling Steffi […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":16696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-16695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16695"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=16695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}