Angelique Kerber into final of the Australian open 2016

Seven career titles, more than $9 million prize money and a stint in the world’s top five are records that most players would covet but even with all those milestones, there has long been a sense that Angelique Kerber was still capable of achieving more.

The only member of the current top 10 not to reach a Grand Slam final until now, Kerber had come tantalising close with semifinal runs at the US Open in 2011 and Wimbledon in 2012 but never quite seized her breakthrough moment. 

Now, after 33 Grand Slam attempts, Kerber has at last earned a major opportunity after a 7-5 6-2 win over Johanna Konta. It followed a first-round win over Misaki Doi, where she saved match point in the second set tiebreak, and a first-ever win over Victoria Azarenka in the quarterfinals.

“(It’s) a special moment, a special feeling to get there right now, to being in the final. I mean, I'm four years in the top 10. I was not playing so good last year in the big tournaments,” she said.

“That was my focus, to play better in the bigger one. Now I'm in the finals here. So that means, of course, a lot.”

Winless in her six previous matches against Azarenka, Kerber needed aggression against the two-time Australian Open champion in their hard-fought quarterfinal. But with Konta hitting the errors in their semifinal – there were 36 by the end of the one-hour, 22-minute contest – the consistent German could rely on her more efficient tennis.