Jule Niemeier continued her winning streak at the classic grass lawn in Wimbledon and reached the round of 16 on her debut. Tatjana Maria is also in the next round. For Angelique Kerber, on the other hand, the disappointing end came.
On Friday (July 1st, 2022), Maria caused the next big surprise for the German tennis women. After about an hour and a half, the 34-year-old prevailed 6: 3, 7: 5 against world number five Maria Sakkari from Greece and is in the round of 16 for the first time. There she now meets the Latvian Jelena Ostapenko.
In her previous nine attempts, Maria, ranked number 103 in the world, had never progressed past the third round. Now she has achieved the greatest success of her career – 15 months after the birth of her second daughter.
With Sakkari, the next top player had to say goodbye to Wimbledon early. Sakkari became the sixth top 10 player to get caught in one of the first three rounds.
Shows strength in Wimbledon: Jule Niemeier celebrates after winning a match.
Also Niemeier in the round of 16 – now against Heather Watson
Jule Niemeier had previously celebrated her next surprise success. The 22-year-old Dortmund player Niemeier defeated the Ukrainian Lessia Zurenko 6: 4, 3: 6, 6: 3 and confirmed her previous success against the third in the world rankings Anett Kontaveit from Estonia.
For the biggest success of her tennis career so far, Niemeier received the equivalent of 219,000 euros. in the round of 16 she now meets the Briton Heather Watsonwho prevailed against Kaja Juvan from Slovenia and defeated Tamara Korpatsch in the first round.
Watson is eight years older than Niemeier, but still has no experience at this level in a Grand Slam. As number 109 in the world, the Briton is even twelve places behind Niemeier. And yet it will be a match for a big court – possibly even Center Court.
Coach Kas on Niemeier’s success: “On a certain cloud”
“I’m just happy that I won, even if I couldn’t show my best tennis,” said the 22-year-old from Dortmund: “The match was decided in my head today, not playfully. I’m happy that I stayed mentally strong am.”
“It was an emotional roller coaster ride. I’m immensely proud that she managed to be there again and again in the important phases, to play actively enough,” said coach Christopher Kas. “We’re on a certain cloud, and we’ll just keep riding it and then we’ll see how far it takes us.”
Kerber fails against Mertens
Angelique Kerber, on the other hand, was eliminated. The tournament winner of 2018 lost 4: 6, 5: 7 against the Belgian Elise Mertens and was twice unable to use a break advantage in the second set. Last year, Kerber reached the semi-finals.