Last year’s Wimbledon fairy tale was not repeated for Tatjana Maria. After a mixed performance, the 2022 semi-finalist was eliminated in the first round of the grass classic in rainy London this time.
The 35-year-old lost against Sorana Cirstea from Romania 1: 6, 6: 2, 3: 6 and was the second German tennis player to miss the second round. Anna-Lena Friedsam had already failed on Monday.
For Alexander Zverev, the wait continued on Wednesday. Because the rain in London again caused delays, the Olympic champion’s opening game against the Dutch qualifier Gijs Brouwer was postponed again and is now scheduled to take place this Thursday.
Niemeier and Marterer also have to wait
The encounter between Jule Niemeier and French Open finalist Karolina Muchova from the Czech Republic was postponed again. Curious: While the top favorites Novak Djokovic and Iga Swiatek are already in the third round, Zverev and Niemeier have not spent a second on the pitch. Maximlian Marterer’s second round match against the American Michael Mmoh was also postponed to Thursday due to the time delay.
In 2022 Maria had won against Cirstea in the second round in three sets. After that, she wrote a success story at the most famous tennis tournament in the world. After a victory in the German quarter-final duel against Niemeier, Maria was only over in the semifinals in three sets against Tunisian Ons Jabeur. “No one can take that away from me. I will always be a semi-finalist at Wimbledon, even if I’m obviously very disappointed now,” she said.
Maria hopes to take part in the doubles competition
The early end should also cause her two daughters to be in a bad mood. The two girls have chosen Wimbledon as their favorite tournament because they love the childcare at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club so much. “They want to be in there all the time, so we always plan everything around it. That they go in at eleven o’clock and stay until they close,” Maria said before the tournament. Now she hopes that she will slip into the competition in doubles so that she can extend her stay a bit for the benefit of her children.
The long wait because of the rain on Wednesday didn’t seem to have gone down well with Maria. The Swabian who lives in Florida initially found no rhythm at all and was quickly behind by 1:5. After that, the game was interrupted for more than an hour due to the bad weather.
Cirstea gets a quick break in the third set
Maria used the break to collect herself. “It did me good,” she admitted. Although she quickly gave up the first set after the interruption with 1: 6. After another break in the rain of around half an hour, the mother of two played as if transformed and won the second round 6:2.
However, Maria could not maintain the level. Cirstea managed a quick break in the deciding set, and the Romanian served to win the match at 5:3. But Maria didn’t give up and fought for another breakball. “It was almost the same as last year. I was behind there too, but I still turned the game around. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out this time.” After 1:37 hours, Cirstea, number 37 in the world, converted her first match point.
Korpatsch in round two – Hanfmann out
Tamara Korpatsch, on the other hand, made it into the second round. The 28-year-old from Hamburg won her opening match against Canadian qualifier Carol Zhao 1:6, 6:4, 6:2. Korpatsch had actually already failed in the qualification, but then slipped into the main draw as a so-called lucky loser. She now meets the Serbian qualifier Natalija Stevanovic.
The end came as for Maria for Yannick Hanfmann. The 31-year-old from Karlsruhe lost in the first round against the ninth-seeded American Taylor Fritz 4:6, 6:2, 6:4, 5:7, 3:6 and thus just missed a surprise. The game was stopped on Monday evening when Fritz was 3-2 in the fifth set due to darkness. On Tuesday it could not be continued because of the constant rain in London.
Hanfmann and Fritz also had to wait a long time on Wednesday because of the bad weather. As things continued, Hanfmann conceded a quick break to make it 3:5 and had to admit defeat after a total of three hours. “Of course I’m disappointed. Unfortunately, today was too short,” said Hanfmann. “But on Monday it was awesome, I played really well.”
