“I gave birth a good year ago. It’s crazy, I have goosebumps everywhere.” Tatjana Maria is 34 years old, mother of two children and already a big sensation in the women’s competition of the Grand Slam tournament in Wimbledon. Yesterday she reached the round of the top four, defeating Jule Niemeier in the German duel 4:6, 6:2, 7:5.
“I don’t even know what to say about it, because it’s just incredible what they’re doing as a family. The whole day-to-day tour and two children: that’s worthy of honor,” Niemeier said yesterday, paying homage to her twelve years older Rival. After losing the first, Maria hit back in the second set and finally gave the fans a thriller. Niemeier broke to make it 3:2, but remained too passive and had to accept the 4:4 after a slight volley error. Suddenly Maria was on top again, two points were missing to win the match, Niemeier, who was twelve years younger, remained strong and drove the audience on. After a hard-fought ball when the score was 5:5, Maria had the better end for herself.
Her successes in the classic lawn have already brought 622,000 euros into the family coffers. In the semifinals tomorrow she will face the winner of the match between world number two Ons Jabeur from Tunisia and Marie Bouzkova from the Czech Republic.
Novak Djokovic already had his back to the wall yesterday, but then made it into the semifinals with difficulty. The Serb was already 2-0 down in sets against the Italian Jannik Sinner. But then the top seeded Djokovic found his way back into his game after a toilet break. “He was the better player in the first two sets. I refreshed myself and had a little motivational talk with my reflection,” says Djokovic. That helped. After the 5: 7, 2: 6, 6: 3, 6: 2, 6: 2 he still left the lawn as the winner.
His arch rival Rafael Nadal had to fight much less hard in the 6: 4, 6: 2, 7: 6 (6) against the Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp.
Trio already in the round of 16
While Austria’s top star Dominic Thiem played against Filip Misolic for his first win in 2022 at the ATP Challenger in Salzburg last night, Dennis Novak, Maximilian Neuchrist and Lukas Neumayer advanced to the round of 16 of the home tournament. Local hero Neumayer played confidently in the 6:2, 6:4 against the former top ten man Gilles Simon (Fra). Novak was also hardly challenged in the 6: 2, 7: 5 against the Russian Ivan Gakhov and has to play again today against Dusan Lajovic, the challenger’s number two. Qualifier Neuchrist won against the Czech Zdenek Kolar 7:6, 6:3.
Source: Nachrichten
