AO19 Ones to Watch: Kiki Bertens
Kiki Bertens was kryptonite for top-10 players in 2018.
The Dutchwoman led the WTA for most clashes with top-10 opponents (19) and wins (12). The last player to do so well against the elite? Serena Williams.
And Bertens was outside the top 10 for all but the last two wins, against Angelique Kerber and Naomi Osaka (on a retirement) in Singapore. She ended the season at a career-high No.9, up from No.31 at the start of 2018, and as the peer-voted Most Improved Player.
“It’s been an incredible season. I can be really proud of myself,” Bertens said at the year-end event in Singapore, finishing with three titles and a hefty 46-23 record for 2018. “The only goal we set in the beginning of this year was just try to have more fun; of course winning is more fun.”
Bertens won finals at Charleston, Cincinnati and Seoul; made the quarterfinals at Wimbledon with thrilling upsets of Venus Williams and Karolina Pliskova; scored other quality wins over Madison Keys and Maria Sharapova; and debuted at the WTA Finals, winning her group to advance to the semis, where she bowed to eventual champion Elina Svitolina.
The peak was a transformative first hardcourt title in Cincinnati.
Bertens had always considered herself a claycourt specialist. Her seven WTA finals had all come on dirt - so too her best Grand Slam result, a semifinal loss to Serena Williams at Roland Garros 2016. But in Cincy she overcame a phalanx of hardcourt warriors: No.2 Caroline Wozniacki, No.7 Svitolina, No.6 Petra Kvitova and in final, No.1 Simona Halep, whom she overcame from two match points down.
“It’s just proof to myself that I can beat anyone,” Bertens reflected on her giant-slaying run. “I think before I thought, ‘Oh, those are great players, I can never beat them.’ Now I’m still thinking they are great players but I have beaten them before so I can do it again, hopefully today.”
Watching her hard-slugging, physical style, it’s no surprise that Bertens’ childhood idol was Kim Clijsters. The 27-year-old plays a similar pacey, powerful game to the former No.1 Belgian but is taller at six feet. She also deploys a devastating drop-shot, and brings plenty of fight. Against top seed Kerber in Singapore, she came from 6-1 2-0 down. In her last title win, over Ajla Tomljanovic in Seoul, she was down a break in the third set before sweeping six straight games.
The middle of three girls, Bertens is the highest-ranked Dutchwoman since big-serving Brenda Schultz, who also rose to No.9. But since Schultz was married and played under her husband’s American name and nationality, as Schultz-McCarthy, Bertens is officially her country’s highest-ranked woman.
Such a milestone was unthinkable at the end of 2015, when Bertens ended the year outside the top 100 and considered quitting the game. But an inspired underdog run in the 2016 Fed Cup recharged Bertens. After a drought of four years, she won her second title on clay in Nuremberg and then charged to the semifinals at Roland Garros, where she led Serena Williams by a break in both sets. She led the tour in 2016 for most wins on clay.
Bertens was also buoyed by her coach since 2015, countryman Raemon Sluiter, a Davis Cup warrior who played above his ranking for his country. In Cincinnati, she explained their tearful post-victory embrace. “Last week my coach said: ‘OK, anything is possible. Maybe you play another final here in the States.’ Hearing that, I was kind of laughing, like, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to do that. I need to improve a little bit my game.’ I think he was right.”
For a low-key type, Bertens has posted some startling career stats. Her first title at Fes, Morocco, in 2012 came as a qualifier ranked 149, with Garbine Muguruza and Simona Halep among her eight victims. In her Grand Slam debut at Wimbledon 2012, Bertens took out the seeded Lucie Safarova 6-3 6-0. En route to the Nuremberg title in 2016 (again as a qualifier), she toppled No.1 seed Roberta Vinci.
Now, after a couple of self-described joyless seasons hovering around the top 30, Bertens is at a career and happiness high. “I’m just trying to not think about tennis too much,” she said of her banner season. “Like off court, doing some more fun stuff. Just walk around the city, go for a coffee and do some yoga.
“It’s more not putting so much pressure on myself. Just focus on what I think is important in my life. Of course, tennis is a big part of that, but that’s what I’m doing for so many hours a week. Off court I’m just trying to enjoy life.”
Australia hasn’t seen the best of Bertens - she was 1-5 at Melbourne Park before a run to the third round last January, bowing to eventual winner Caroline Wozniacki - but there’s every reason to think the giant-slayer of 2018 will change all that at AO2019.