Angelique Kerber has been through a lot recently. She has been struggling to find a decent pace throughout the most of the current season, and now, the former world No. 1 will start to defend the last fortress of what was a huge kingdom last year. Currently ranked sixth in the world, she was given the same number on the seeded players' list in New York. Even so, she is still the reigning champion and will hold the headlines of today's session along with the last year's runner-up and current world No. 1 Karolina Pliskova.
For the 29-year-old German, the season of 2016 will probably remain the best of her entire professional career.
In what can be described as a near-to-perfection run, Kerber went on reaching three Grand Slam finals winning two of them. In 2017, she is yet to win a single WTA title having played a small final at a WTA International event in Monterrey which she lost too. That's just to make it easier to compare her last two seasons on the WTA Tour.
Kerber shares quarter of the draw with Jelena Ostapenko and Elina Svitolina
Th upper half of the main draw's matches are scheduled for today. Thus, Angelique Kerber will start her 2017 Us Open Tennis Championships campaign by facing Naomi Osaka. The 19-year-old Osaka is ranked 45th in the world and bears some of the WTA hopes of being a future star of the game.
She and Kerber will meet for the first time in a WTA level tournament.
The winner of this encounter will cross paths with the surviving part of Denisa Allertova (90 WTA) vs. Rebecca Peterson (196 WTA) who went through qualifications to gain access to the main draw. The third round could bring Lesia Tsurenko, the 28th seed, while Jelena Ostapenko, no other than the 2017 French Open champion, seems a possible tough matchup for the round of 16.
Is she survives to the first four tests, the defending champion may face Elina Svitolina in the quarterfinals. The Ukrainian tennis is seeking to close the gap to the world No. 1. The winner of the Rogers Cup in Toronto, the 22-year-old Ukrainian is looking for a breakthrough concerning Majors.
Pliskova may emerge for the semis in a replay of last year's final
2016 US Open has brought to its finish line a hard to anticipate clash in the beginning. Angelique Kerber and Karolina Pliskova made it to the final act with Kerber edging the Czech player at the end of a three sets battle. One year later, these two are again on a collision course, but this time the stage is a bit different. Still, the winner would have at least a runner-up ticket.
Overall, Kerber is 25-17 in win/ loss counter of the current season. These are some awful numbers, and the US Open is perhaps her last chance to save something from a disastrous season. Maybe the grandeur of the center court will bring back that sharpness Kerber needs.
