Factbox on Germany's Angelique Kerber, who beat American Serena Williams in the women's final of the Wimbledon Championships on Saturday:
Born in Bremen, Germany on January 18, 1988. (Age: 30)
Grand Slam titles: Australian Open (2016); US Open (2016); Wimbledon (2018)
EARLY LIFE
- Began playing tennis aged three and grew up idolizing Steffi Graf.
- Turned professional in 2003 aged 15 and spent four years building the consistency needed to qualify for regular tour events.
- Made first main draw in 2006 at Hasselt in Belgium, losing to Serbia's Ana Ivanovic in the second round.
PROFESSIONAL CAREER
- Cracked the top 100 for the first time in May 2007 and made her first WTA quarter-final at 's-Hertogenbosch.
- Made her first Grand Slam main draw at Roland Garros, which she followed up at Wimbledon and the US Open, though she lost in the first round of each.
- Played her first Australian Open main draw in 2008, reaching the second round before losing to Italy's Francesca Schiavone.
- Reached her first WTA Tour-level final in Bogota in 2010, but lost to local Mariana Duque-Mario 6-4, 6-3 in the final.
- Had a breakthrough in 2011 with her first Grand Slam semi-final appearance at the US Open, entering the tournament ranked 92, losing to eventual champion Samantha Stosur of Australia.
- Began 2012 with two semi-finals in Auckland and Hobart before she beat Maria Sharapova, the top seed, in the quarter-finals in Paris, then beat second-seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli to clinch her first title.
- Also advanced to quarter-final at Roland Garros and Wimbledon semi-finals, where she lost to Agnieszka Radwanska.
- Reached the quarter-finals of the London Olympics, where she was beaten by Victoria Azarenka.
- Made the WTA Tour Finals for first time and finished the year a career-high ranking of fifth.
- Despite continuing to remain in the top-10 she endured a frustrating 2014, where she made four finals and lost them all.
- Exited in the first round of 2015 Australian Open but won four titles on four different surfaces, becoming the first woman since Jelena Jankovic in 2007 to win WTA Tour titles on green clay, red clay, grass and hard courts.
- Qualified for her third season-ending WTA Finals, beating Petra Kvitova in the round robin and needed to win just one set against Czech Lucie Safarova to advance to the semi-finals but lost 6-4, 6-3.
- Almost repeated her first-round exit at the 2016 Australian Open, when she was forced to save a match point against Japan's Misaki Doi, but recovered and went on to win her first Grand Slam title by fending off then-world number one Williams.
- Entered 2016 French Open as the third seed but bowed out to Kiki Bertens in the first round.
- Edged past Simona Halep in the quarter-finals to better her 2014 run at Wimbledon and progressed to the final but was ousted by Serena.
- Rose to world number one by ending Karolina Pliskova's 11-match winning streak, beating the Czech 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the US Open final to clinch her second Grand Slam title of the year.
- Also became the first German to win the title since Steffi Graf in 1996.
- Started 2017 atop the rankings but had a frustrating year, failing to defend her Australian Open title after losing 6-2, 6-3 to Coco Vandeweghe in the fourth round.
- Suffered a shock first-round exit at the French Open as the top seed was beaten by Russian Ekaterina Makarova.
- Also failed to repeat her Wimbledon run and was defeated by eventual champion Garbine Muguruza in the fourth round.
- After losing her number one ranking, she entered the US Open as the sixth seed to defend her title but fell to a first-round defeat by Japan's Naomi Osaka.
- An inconsistent year saw the German end the year at 21st position in the rankings.
- Began resurgence in 2018 by winning the Sydney International and cruising through to the semi-finals of the Australian Open, where she lost to world number one Simona Halep.
- She was denied by the Romanian again in the quarter-finals of the French Open.
