For the very best, old habits die hard. And Angelique Kerber, a three-time grand slam winner and former world No 1, was undoubtedly among the very best.
So despite announcing that she would retire after these Olympics, when the end came, the 36-year-old German was never going to go gently into that good night. Instead, Kerber did what she has always done: she gave everything, ran from first ball to last, conjured improbable angles at full stretch. Crouching low to the court in signature fashion, she absorbed and redirected the ferocious firepower of Qinwen Zheng, the Chinese world No 7, confounding an opponent 15 years her junior with changes of pace, spin and height.
And when none of that proved quite enough, and she had blown a 4-1 lead in the decider and found herself three match points down in the last tiebreak of her career, Kerber produced a magnificent final flourish. She defiantly drilled an untouchable forehand return down the line to save one match point. She pulled Zheng from corner to corner before flicking an audacious cross-court winner to fend off another. And then, as a cagey 19-shot rally drained the air from her already burning lungs, Kerber opened her shoulders and found the baseline with the sweetest of backhands, levelling the score once again. It was the perfect vignette of her unique style, a counterpuncher with a deadly southpaw edge, as happy throwing up moonballs as lasering geometry-defying forehands at full pelt.
But Zheng too has something of the very best about her. The 21-year-old reached her first major final six months ago at the Australian Open, and her response spoke of even bigger things to come. Zheng may never play a more courageous, clear-headed drop shot than the one she produced to bring up a fourth match point. She would not be denied again. The final shot of Kerber’s career was a forehand that nosedived into the net, confirm a 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) defeat.
There are worse ways to go than in a final-set tiebreak. Even so, it was an incongruous ending. In one way, the moment belonged to Kerber. Yet there was undeniable power in the sight of a tearful Zheng falling to the clay in celebration, overwhelmed by the enormity of becoming only the second Chinese player to reach an Olympic semi-final. Kerber knows as well as anyone what such moments feel like. But she has of late become increasingly familiar with the sting of defeat. Having arrived in Paris off the back of five straight losses, her run to the quarter-finals – the first time she has reached that stage of a tournament in two years – felt touched by magic. It was, as she acknowledged, a good time to stop.
“There are a lot of emotions,” said Kerber, who defeated Naomi Osaka, Jaqueline Cristian and Leylah Fernandez to make the last eight. “I gave everything I could on court, and I think this is what counts for me. Especially coming here, playing great matches, feeling that I can still play with the top players and having this decision in my hands, to have no injuries.
“I cannot stop better than here, playing for your country, playing on [Court Philippe] Chatrier, such a great crowd, and I just tried my best.”
Throughout a distinguished career, Kerber rarely gave less. A late developer in tennis terms, the German offered a first hint of things to come in 2011, when she broke a sequence of four straight first-round defeats at grand slam level with a run to the US Open semi-finals while ranked 92 in the world. Kerber reached the same stage at Wimbledon the following year, hard on the heels of a last-eight finish at the French Open. But although she became a fixture in the top 10, three relatively lean seasons at the majors followed, prompting her to re-evaluate her game and career. Kerber cleaned up her diet, worked hard to improve her second serve – always the most vulnerable aspect of her game, given that she is a natural right-hander – and sought the counsel of her celebrated compatriot Steffi Graf.
At the start of 2016, it all came together in the most improbable fashion at the Australian Open, where Kerber, now 28, survived a match point in the opening round against Misaki Doi of Japan and went on to win her first grand slam title the hard way, defeating Serena Williams in the final.
The belief she took from that win would underpin a historic season. A run to the Wimbledon final, where Williams exacted revenge for her defeat in Melbourne, was followed by an Olympic silver medal in Rio de Janeiro, where Kerber was upset in the final by the unseeded Monica Puig. More was to come at the US Open, where the German recovered from a break down in the final set against Karolina Pliskova to win the title and cement her rise to world No 1, the oldest woman ever to claim that distinction for the first time. A season that brought 63 victories would end with another career milestone at the WTA Finals in Singapore, where she finished runner-up to Dominika Cibulková.
It was a tough act to follow, but Kerber came close in 2018, reaching the last four in Melbourne, the quarter-finals at Roland Garros, and finally winning Wimbledon, the title she had coveted since childhood. At 30 years old, it was her crowning achievement.
“Winning here, it’s forever,” said Kerber. “Nobody can take the title away from me now.”
Five years later, however, her priorities were forever altered by the birth of her daughter, Liana. Kerber’s appetite for the sport remained intact, but she no longer saw herself simply as a tennis player; sport had become secondary.
“I still love tennis, but first and foremost I’m a mother with my whole heart, and it’s a real joy,” said Kerber. “There’s a little person in my life that is far more important than tennis.”
That being the case, what better place to finish than at the Olympics, where her performances – a quarter-final at London 2012, a final in Rio de Janeiro four years later, and now another last-eight appearance in Paris – have reflected the different phases of her career. Kerber acknowledged that pattern in her retirement announcement, which stands as a fitting valedictory statement.
“I will never forget Paris 2024, because it will be my last professional tournament as a tennis player,” wrote Kerber. “And whereas this might actually be the right decision, it will never feel that way. Simply because I love the sport with all my heart, and I’m thankful for the memories and opportunities it has given me.
“The Olympics I’ve participated in so far have been more than just competitions, as they represent different chapters of my life as a tennis player: the climb, the peak… and now the finish line.”
To the very last, Kerber never stopped sprinting for that line.