Australian Open: Mona Barthel also eliminated - no Germans left
Mona Barthel is the last German tennis player to be eliminated from the singles competition at the Australian Open.
by SID
last edit: Feb 11, 2021, 05:51 am
The 30-year-old from Neumünster lost her second round game on Thursday against Karolina Muchova, who was 25th from the Czech Republic, 4: 6, 1: 6. For the first time since the French Open 2010, the third round of a Grand Slam tournament will take place without a representative of the German Tennis Federation (DTB).
The three-time Grand Slam winner Angelique Kerber (Kiel), Andrea Petkovic (Darmstadt) and Laura Siegemund (Metzingen) had already failed in Melbourne because of their opening hurdles. In the men's category, only world number seven Alexander Zverev (Hamburg) reached the third round. From a German point of view, a total of four women and five men entered the race.
"It's a shame that I may not have played my best tennis in the important situations in the first set," said Barthel: "But it's been a long time since I played a match at this level against such a good player. That's why I can I can be proud of myself, I can take a lot of positive things out of the match. "
Barthel got off to a bad start
Barthel, who celebrated her best Grand Slam result as the last sixteen at the 2017 Australian Open, had repeatedly been thrown back from injuries and illnesses in recent years. In Melbourne she was allowed to compete in the main round due to a so-called protected ranking for players who had been out for a long time. A foot injury had plagued her from July 2019, and she only returned to the tour at the beginning of this year. "I think it was a good tournament for me," she said despite her elimination.
On Thursday Barthel, who slipped to 212th place in the world, quickly had trouble with the powerful game of the 185 places better classified Muchova. The Schleswig-Holstein woman was able to equalize a first break to 2: 3, but then she had to let it go and lost the first set in 42 minutes. In the second round the difference in quality became even clearer, after the 1-0 Barthel won no more games. After 1:13 hours, the sobering balance for the DTB women was finally perfect.
Here is the individual tableau at the Australian Open
laver arena