{"id":32476,"date":"2021-02-08T06:19:31","date_gmt":"2021-02-08T07:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=32476"},"modified":"2021-02-08T07:59:54","modified_gmt":"2021-02-08T07:59:54","slug":"former-champ-blames-quarantine-for-shock-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=32476","title":{"rendered":"Former champ blames quarantine for shock loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former world No.1 Angelique Kerber admits she would have thought twice about competing at this year's Australian Open<\/a> had she known about the two weeks of hard quarantine that she'd be forced to endure.<\/p>\n

Kerber, the 2016 Australian Open champion, was dumped out of the draw in a stunning round one upset, a heavy 6-0 6-3 loss to American Bernarda Pera, whose best result at a grand slam is a third round appearance.<\/p>\n

Watch the Australian Open with live streams of every court at 9Now. Click here to start watching!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Pera, ranked 149th in the world, avoided the hard quarantine treatment Kerber had to undergo, which the German star felt played a part in today's loss. Kerber was forced to isolate in her hotel room for two weeks upon her arrival in Melbourne after a passenger on her plane returned a positive test to COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Despite that setback, she still featured in three Melbourne lead-up matches before today's clash with Pera, but the 33-year-old said she wasn't "feeling the rhythm" she had prior to departing for Australia.<\/p>\n

"Definitely (it had an impact), yes," Kerber told reporters after the match.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

"I mean, of course I was really trying to staying positive and doing the best out of the two-week situation.<\/p>\n

"But, of course, you feel it, especially if you play a real match where it counts and you play the first matches in a Grand Slam, also against an opponent who doesn't stay in the hard lockdown.<\/p>\n

"I was feeling this at the beginning, that of course my balls are always a little bit out and I was not feeling the rhythm that I was before the two weeks, to be honest. That's for sure, I mean.<\/p>\n

"But what can I do? I tried the best out of it. Of course, you feel it if you are not hitting ball two weeks and you are not in the rhythm."<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Kerber applauded Australia's fight against COVID-19 but admitted she would have reconsidered coming here had she known she would face a hard quarantine period.<\/p>\n

"First of all, I mean, Australia is doing a really good job," she added.<\/p>\n

"Now when you are free, you go outside, everything is open. Of course, it feels like a normal life, let's say.<\/p>\n

"But when I'm looking back, of course It was not planned the two weeks hard quarantine.<\/p>\n

"I don't know, maybe if I knew that before to stay really two weeks in the hard quarantine without hitting a ball, maybe I would think twice about that.<\/p>\n

"But I was trying to take the motivation also for this tournament because it's one of my favourite tournaments.<\/p>\n

"Of course, I knew that we play with a little bit of fans, which is always such a different than playing with no fans.<\/p>\n

"It makes playing tennis much more fun to play out there. So that was my motivation.<\/p>\n

"But, of course, if I knew the real situation before my trip, I would think maybe twice to come here."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former world No.1 Angelique Kerber admits she would have thought twice about competing at this year's Australian Open had she known about the two weeks […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32476"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32476"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32478,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32476\/revisions\/32478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}