Top 10 Stories from the 2016 U.S. Open

NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 10: Angelique Kerber of Germany celebrates the victory during the trophy presentation after beating Karolina Pliskova of Czech Republic in 3 sets in the women’s final (Photo by Jean Catuffe/Getty Images)

3. Angelique Kerber Ends Her Slam Season as She Started It

Angelique Kerber started out the year by shocking Serena Williams to win the Australian Open. She’d just turned 28, by which age her chance was supposed to have passed, and it made for a good story. Even Serena was clearly happy for her.

Then, for the next few months, there was the question of her coping with being a slam winner. Her next two tournaments she lost in the first round. She did better after that, but in the two big clay tournaments and the French Open she again failed to win a match. She pulled herself together during the summer, though, making the finals at Wimbledon and the Olympics. Even when she didn’t win them, she was suddenly looking at potentially coming out the U.S. Open as World Number 1 as well. But we’d seen two version of Angelique Kerber this season, and we couldn’t be sure which one would show up.

It turned out to be the nerve-holding, slamming-winning, number one player in the world version.  Kerber tore through her draw, not even losing a set until the final.  There she did drop the second set, but came through in the third.  She didn’t have it easy; Pliskova played a good match. But she rose to the occasion, fighting back from the break down in the third to take it. Now she has a second slam and the title of World Number One to her resume.

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