Former World No.1 Angelique Kerber bids farewell to tennis after epic Qinwen Zheng defeat at Olympic Games

Angelique Kerber's career has ended at the hands of Qinwen Zheng after an epic contest at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. The former World No.1 has been the story of the tournament and despite defeat went out in style.

Kerber lost 7-6, 4-6, 6-7(2) saving three match points in the deciding set tie-break before finally losing the match after some epic rallies in the latter half of the match. This week, Kerber has given it her all after a pretty uneventful comeback at times. She defeated Naomi Osaka, Jaqueline Cristian and Leylah Fernandez but fell short against 'Queenwen'.

Zheng now sits on a likely collision course with a familiar foe in Iga Swiatek who is currently facing off against Danielle Collins. For Kerber, it is not a medal to end her career and perhaps it is a metaphor for her career at Roland Garros. The only tournament where she never sealed the title.

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But off the evidence of this week, tennis will be a poorer place without the legendary German who is bound to go on to taste Hall of Fame accolades and be revered as one of the best WTA players of the modern era.

Some of the shots including an epic rally including in the three set were truly phenomenal. In the suffocating heat, Kerber moonballed her way into saving a break point when she looked utterly spent in one of the best points of the tournament. It was basically Kerber's career in a nutshell as she fought until the very last point.

The same can be said at the end of the match as Zheng who came from a set down forced a tie-break for a befitting end and went 4-1 and 5-3 up on Kerber with match points coming but Kerber served them all until her resolve ran out.

On the other side of the draw, Anna Karolina Schmiedlova though continues to roll the dice. She is having a week similar to win Monica Puig won Rio 2016 albeit with the Slovak having success at a lower level for sometime. She has yet to do it though at a high level and is doing so this week.

Jasmine Paolini and now Barbora Krejcikova have succumbed to the World No.67 who won through today 6-4, 6-2. Often looking like she will collapse in the heat, she finds a way through and has been utterly epic. She will also face the winner of Marta Kostyuk and Donna Vekic for a spot in a medal match. So either way one of three players will have a career defining moment come the end of the week. What the Olympic Games is all about and Schmiedlova is living proof.

Mario Boccardi

@marioboc17

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THANK YOU ANGIE KERBER ❤️ Fabulous tennis player, fabulous person, fabulous final tournament, fabulous career 🙏🏼🥹

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