The 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship (5-21 May in Cologne and Paris) can count on high-profile support. World-class tennis player Angelique Kerber has accepted the role of an official ambassador of the 2017 IIHF Worlds. Franz Reindl, president of the German Ice Hockey Federation as well as of the Championship's organizing committee, personally handed over the ambassador certificate to her. Angelique Kerber consequently did not hesitate to replace the tennis racket with an ice hockey stick for the photo shooting upon the occasion.

Angelique Kerber explains her new role: “On the tennis court I am a lonely fighter most of the time. That is actually why I am admiring, how in team sports the individual performance only shows advantage when being part of a perfect teamwork and how all give everything for the success of the entire squad. Ice hockey was always especially fascinating to me, because everything is happening at breath-taking speed. For this sport and particularly for a great event like the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Germany and France, I take great pleasure in accepting the role of an ambassador. I am meeting a lot of people in my job and will certainly use the occasions to communicate about the World Championship in Cologne and Paris. If it fits with my tournament calendar, I would definitely like to visit some of the games in May.”

Franz Reindl is thrilled about the new ambassador: “With her stunning tennis, Angelique Kerber has played herself into the hearts of sports fans all over the world. With her passion for the sport, her untiring determination for performance, but also with her fairness and respect for the opponent, she is a role model and stands for a lot of values, which are also represented by ice hockey. In our German National Ice Hockey Team, all are fans of Angelique anyway, at the latest, since she sent a video message into the locker room at last year's IIHF Worlds in Russia. This has extremely motivated our boys and it was clear already then, that Angelique Kerber would be an ideal ambassador for our IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. Indeed she has committed to this role right upon being asked.”

In 2016, the most successful year of her career since turning pro in 2003, the 29-year-old Angelique Kerber won the Australian Open, the US Open and an Olympic silver medal for Germany in Rio de Janeiro. Furthermore she played the finals in Wimbledon as well as at the WTA Masters and she closed the year as the world’s number-one ranked tennis player. Currently, Kerber is ranked second on the WTA world ranking. Her immense popularity among sports fans all over the world and way beyond the limits of tennis is proven by her almost 830,000 Facebook subscribers and almost 280,000 Twitter followers.

Tickets for the 64 games of the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship at Cologne’s LANXESS arena and Paris’ AccorHotels Arena are available:

• Here in the official Online Ticket Shop or on www.facebook.com/IIHFHockey.
• via ticket phone: +49 1806 2017 01 for Germany and +33 892 69 20 17 for France (phone charges will apply depending on country and network calling from).