Porsche Tennis Grand Prix: Niemeier and Schunk miss out on surprises
Jule Niemeier and Nastasja Schunk missed the leap into the second round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix - despite good performances.
by Florian Goosman from Stuttgart
last edit: Apr 19, 2022, 10:33 pm
The two players from the Porsche Talent Team had caught difficult starts: Schunk had to play against Eleny Rybakina, Niemeier against Bianca Andresscu.
Rybakina only proved to be a shock to the German players last weekend, at the Billie Jean King Cup in Kazakhstan she scored two points against Laura Siegemund and Angelique Kerber and Siegemund only allowed one game.
Schunk, currently 224th in the world rankings, was quite unimpressed by this, but a 4:2 lead in the first set did not bring her home. In the second set, however, she showed strong fighter qualities, turned it up again after being 3:5 behind, but it didn't help in the end. In the end it was 6:7 (3), 5:7 against the number 19 in the world.
Bianca Andreescu wants to have fun playing again
Afterwards, Jule Niemeier faced an almost even greater task: Bianca Andreescu, US Open winner in 2019, who was recently put out of action again and again. Strictly according to the world rankings (as number 108), Niemeier was the favorite compared to the far fallen Andreescu (currently number 121, but formerly number 4). Niemeier also led almost the entire set, but didn't manage to be served at 5:4: A double fault at 30:30, then a return from Andreescu to the touchline spoke against the set lead; in the tie-break Andreescu played the crucial points really well. And in set 2: the Canadian went in front with a break and couldn't take it anymore.
In the past, she measured herself too much by results, liked herself when she won; hated herself when she lost, Andreescu explained. Now she wants to have fun on the pitch again.
Lys, Kerber and Siegemund in action on Wednesday
Andreescu now meets the number three of the tournament, Aryna Sabalenka. Rybakina has to play against the second seeded Paula Badosa.
Eva Lys and Tamara Korpatsch had previously celebrated a sense of achievement: Lys showed a great performance in the three-set victory over Voktorija Golubic , Korpatsch beat Camila Giorgi after an equally strong performance .
Angelique Kerber and Laura Siegemund also intervene on Wednesday: Kerber plays against Anett Kontaveit at 6.30 p.m., Siegemund then against Tamara Zidansek.
Already in the afternoon (from around 2 p.m.) Eva Lys can play against Iga Swiatek, the number 1 in the world.