Status: 09.11.2021 11:21 p.m.
Germany’s top tennis player Angelique Kerber and her long-time coach Torben Beltz parted ways for the third time. The coach will look after US Open winner Emma Raducanu in the future.
“I am very grateful for our time together and for everything that we have experienced and achieved as a team,” Kerber said in an interview with her sponsor on Monday, without going into the reasons for the separation. A day later, Raducanu confirmed the future collaboration with Beltz. “It is of course a great privilege to work with such an experienced coach,” said the 18-year-old after her surprising end at the WTA tournament in Linz against Chinese qualifier Wang Xinyu.
Kerber is blowing the attack for 2022
So everyone will probably meet again at the Australian Open at the beginning of next year. “For me, the start of the season in Australia will be about picking up where I left off,” said 33-year-old Kerber. For 2022, the Kiel woman is on the attack: “I want to get involved in the big tournaments for the title.”
Without Beltz – and possibly without a new coach, at least that’s what the Kiel woman’s choice of words suggested: “After Torben’s departure from the team, that also means that I want to take on more responsibility.”
Two Grand Slam titles with Beltz
With Beltz, whom she knew from her youth, Kerber had won two of her three Grand Slam titles and climbed to the top of the world rankings in 2016. The 44-year-old looked after the tennis player from 2004 to 2013, then again from 2014 to the end of 2017 and most recently from the end of July 2020. In their third phase together, Kerber won the lawn tournament in Bad Homburg last June. At Wimbledon, where she triumphed under Belgian Wim Fissette in 2018, Kerber reached the semi-finals.
Kerber: “Can look back positively”
In the world rankings, she managed to return to the top ten last week. “I can look back on the past season positively,” said Kerber: “I have invested a lot of strength and energy to get to where I am now.” Kerber’s season ended the week before with the preliminary round from the German team at the Billie Jean King Cup in Prague.