Emmanuel Thomas I Sunday, June 25, 2023
BERLIN – Former world number one Angelique Kerber is planning to return to tennis competitions at the start of the next season following the birth of her daughter.
“I will return at the start of the upcoming season with the clear goal to play the Australian Open in 2024,” the German player told an interview to the Bild am Sonntag weekly newspaper.
“That includes the warm-up events in Australia in January, maybe also the United Cup with Germany. A comeback to a Grand Slam tournament in Melbourne would be a dream,” she said.
Since her daughter Liana was born in February, Kerber is already training again to get her body used to it again.
“But in Poland, at my tennis academy, I have already hit a few balls,” she said. In Bad Homburg ahead of a tune-up event to Wimbledon, she “did a more intensive session for the first time, playing for over an hour.”
Asked whether Russian and Belarusian athletes should be allowed to compete, Kerber only said “that’s a political question. At the end of the day, it was decided that way.
“But the war is still going on, and that is the worst thing of all. I live in Poland, the war is very close, also in perception. Finding the right balance, without affecting uninvolved athletes, is enormously difficult.”
