After illness: Angelique Kerber starts with “respect” for Long COVID

Updated on 01/14/2022 at 10:25 am

• In 2016, Angelique Kerber celebrated one of the greatest successes of her career by winning the final at the Australian Open.
• Six years after her first triumph in a Grand Slam tournament, she starts in Melbourne under adverse conditions.
• The 33-year-old has just recovered from COVID-19 and no longer has match practice.

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Angelique Kerber has since been worried about her participation in the Australian Open due to her coronavirus infection and worried about possible long-term consequences.

“I was glad that I had the vaccination. But of course you don’t know how things will continue and whether you’ll get Long COVID. Before that I was a bit panicky, not panicky, but respectful,” said Germany’s best tennis player on Friday in Melbourne.

Angelique Kerber has recovered from COVID-19: “I’m fine again”

The 33-year-old from Kiel tested positive in December and did not continue her preparation for the new season until after Christmas. “I’m fine again,” said the former number one in the world three days before the start of the Australian Open, but reported: “My course was ok. I had a fever in the first few days and everything that goes with it, also no taste and so on.” She does not know where she was infected.

Also read: Current developments in the corona pandemic can be found in our live ticker

In the meantime, she has had a thorough examination in Frankfurt and fortunately everything is okay, she said: “At first I didn’t know whether I could even manage Melbourne.”

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Without practice in the difficult first match at the Australian Open

The three-time Grand Slam tournament winner had canceled her originally planned start at the preparatory tournament in Sydney. Without match practice, she will start at the Australian Open, which starts on Monday, and has caught an unpleasant task for the first round in the Estonian Kaia Kanepi. “Expectations are already relatively low,” said Kerber, who triumphed in Melbourne in 2016: “My goal is always the second week, but this year I’ll be looking from lap to lap like never before.” (dpa/hau)