Angelique Kerber became one of two women to clinch her spot to the WTA Year-End Championships on Wednesday. Due to certain results in Moscow, Kerber (along with Flavia Pennetta), clinched spots in the upcoming event in Singapore. With their berths, that leaves one spot left in the draw. That spot will be filled by Carla Suarez Navarro or Lucie Safarova.
Kerber’s Season Review
It was a bright start to the year for the German number one with a quarterfinals in Brisbane and semifinals in Sydney (lost to Elina Svitolina and Karolina Pliskova respectively). Despite the strong start, it crashed and burned quickly at the Australian Open where she lost to Irina-Camelia Begu in her opening round match.
We have to skip all the way to the clay courts to find where Kerber made a significant impact once again as she struggled for results on the hard courts of Europe and North America. At the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, she lifted her first title of the year with three set win over American Madison Keys. Just two weeks later, the German went on a stellar run to win the Stuttgart title taking out Maria Sharapova, Ekaterina Makarova, and finally Caroline Wozniacki along the way. She nearly made it two titles in her home country but fell short in Nuremberg, losing in the semifinals.
After a subpar French Open, Kerber hit the grass courts and won her third title of the year. She defeated Pliskova in Birmingham and was hoping to better her result at the French with a strong run at Wimbledon. However, she only matched it (third round loss) as she lost to eventual runner-up Garbine Muguruza.
Kerber would win her fourth and final title to date so far in Stanford. It wasn’t the best of times for her on the North American hard courts after that, but she made up for it with strong showings in Asia, which was enough for her to book her ticket to Singapore.