Is Angelique Kerber back on track?

It might be too early to be making this assertion, but it seems now, that the burden of defending Grand Slam titles has been lifted from Angelique Kerber’s shoulders, that the German is swinging freely again.

In her past two matches at the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, Kerber exacted revenge on two players who have caused her angst in 2017.

The first was Naomi Osaka, who devastated Kerber in the first round of the US Open just a few weeks ago, where Kerber was the reigning champion. Kerber’s desultory 6-3 6-1 loss to the Japanese whiz kid saw her plummet outside the top 10 to her current ranking of 14th – far below her place atop the rankings as recently as Wimbledon.

But in Tokyo, Kerber swatted Osaka aside in straight sets.

Next came Daria Kasatkina, who has given Kerber fits in winning their clashes in Sydney and Doha earlier this season. Yet Angie was having none of it on Tuesday, overcoming the 20-year-old 7-6(5) 6-3 to book a date with No.2 seed Karolina Pliskova.

It’s her first appearance in a WTA quarterfinal since Eastbourne in June.

So why the reversal in form? Kerber hadn’t been able to string back-to-back wins together since Wimbledon, and arrived in Tokyo on a three-match losing streak. It’s been a sharp upward curve in the Japanese capital this week, and her run could be set to continue – she’s won five of her eight career meetings with Pliskova, including three of the last four.

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“I’m trying to take the energy … and play match by match, and just trying to focus on every single day and not look too far ahead,” she told wtatennis.com. “It’s a tough draw, but a good competition.”

This sentiment is hardly new. In fact, Kerber says something along these lines every week she arrives at a tournament or wins the odd match – which as been an increasingly rare occurrence in 2017.

There’s no doubt the German has struggled to rebound following her banner 2016 season, during which she won the Australian and US Open titles, reached eight finals – including Wimbledon, the gold-medal match at the Rio Olympics, and Singapore’s WTA Finals – and first rose to world No.1. The target on her bag has obviously been far bigger since then, and she’s been playing like it’s affected her.

Billie Jean King famously said that “pressure is a privilege”. But it’s hard to imagine Kerber sees it that way, given her form prior to this week. And she’s not alone.

Garbine Muguruza struggled after her Grand Slam breakthrough at Roland Garros; she failed to reach a final in the ensuing 12 months. After falling at Roland Garros in the fourth round this year, she said: “I’m actually happy that this stage kind of the year is done … I think I’m going to feel much better now to continue the year, and everybody is going to stop bothering me asking me about this tournament, so it’s going to be a little bit like, Whew, let’s keep going.”

Since that loss, she’s been the tour’s form player, winning Wimbledon and Cincinnati and climbing to world No.1.

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Meanwhile, players are experiencing similar struggles to Muguruza. Jelena Ostapenko, this year’s Roland Garros champion, has gone just 8-5 in the three months since her first major title. All eyes will be on recent US Open champion Sloane Stephens, who broke through for her first Slam in New York, to see how she handles the increased glare of the spotlight. Even Osaka, whom Kerber beat on Monday, struggled when returning to the site of her biggest WTA final in Tokyo one year earlier.

Now that Kerber, like Muguruza, has been released of the apparent burden of being a reigning major champion, she’s undefeated.

In fact, the German has no title to defend, of any sort, now. Since her 2016 victory at Flushing Meadows, she hasn’t won another trophy, and in 2017 has reached just one final – at the minor-level WTA event in Monterrey, Mexico.

It would be great if she could rediscover some of the form she displayed in her truly magnificent season last year. She plays a dynamic brand of tennis, with exceptional court coverage, athleticism and defence complemented by an ability to switch gears and attack.

And she certainly has visions of returning to her place among the upper reaches of the sport.

“I know that I’m strong and I know that I will come back stronger, for sure,” she said following her first-round US Open loss. “I know that I will not giving up like this.”

Maybe we’re beginning to already see the proof of those sentiments.