Laura Siegemund put up a lot of resistance to the favorite Caroline Garcia and left the Australian Open with her head held high. The second tournament week takes place without German individual participation.
When Laura Siegemund left the arena with her head held high after the heated duel with a tournament favorite, applause erupted. The German tennis player thanked the audience and smiled. Not happy but satisfied.
The world rankings-158. had demanded everything from the number four seeded Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia in the third round match and narrowly missed her first round of 16 at the Australian Open after 6: 1, 3: 6, 3: 6.
“It was an impressive performance. Hats off, she played a great tournament,” said national coach Barbara Rittner at Eurosport: “She lost to one of the top favorites and played one of the best matches on hard court that I’ve seen from her. She should urgently consider whether she shouldn’t play a bit more in the singles, because that was really fun.”
All German tennis pros out
Nevertheless, the second week of competition at the first Grand Slam tournament of the year will take place for the first time since 2010 without German individual participation. Eight German players had already failed at the opening hurdle, Olympic champion Alexander Zverev followed in the second round. Siegemund was the only positive surprise.
The 34-year-old wanted to play “actively” and “variably” against the big favorite and “not get involved in her power tennis” – and she managed that very well at first. The German, who was on the hard court for the fourth day in a row, showed no sign of tiredness. She made few mistakes at first, taking serve twice from Garcia in the first set. “Great, great body language – great match from her,” Rittner praised during the match: “It’s a real test for Garcia – thanks to an excellent performance by Laura Siegemund.”
Garcia started from the second round, the US Open semi-finalist narrowly prevailed with her higher quality. At the end it got heated with the score of 3:5 and the debut, when the referee warned the German player for a second time for exceeding the time before the serve and took away her first serve. “Nobody would do that with Rafa,” Siegemund scolded the Spanish referee, referring to tennis star Rafael Nadal. When the point was won immediately afterwards, Siegemund celebrated excessively.
Siegemund had already exceeded their target by entering the third round. The world rankings-158. from Metzingen has mainly focused her tournament planning on doubles since her serious knee injury. There she was eliminated in Melbourne on Friday with her Belgian partner Kirsten Flipkens in the first round.
Mies continue in doubles
Meanwhile, doubles player Andreas Mies reached the round of 16 in his first Grand Slam appearance with his new partner John Peers. The two-time French Open winner won the Australian against André Göransson from Sweden and Marc-Andrea Hüsler from Switzerland 6: 4, 7: 6 (7: 5) on Saturday. 14th seeded Mies/Peers will face Australian qualifiers Alex Bolt and Luke Saville in the battle for a quarter-final ticket.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
