Tennis player Tatjana Maria celebrated a successful return at the tennis tournament in Stuttgart. Eleven years after her last appearance in her Swabian homeland, the Wimbledon semi-finalist from 2022 won her first round game against the Swiss qualifier Ylena In-Albon 6: 2, 4: 6, 7: 6 (7: 4 ).
She secured her first main draw victory in Stuttgart and made it into the round of 16 of the clay court tournament for the first time. There the 35-year-old from Bad Saulgau meets fourth-placed French Caroline Garcia on Thursday. “It was so close. In the third set I fought for every point. I definitely needed the audience today. It was an incredible match,” said the German number two, who secured tournament victory in Bogotá, Colombia, a week and a half ago .
Maria dominated the beginning of the game against the world number 138. In-Albon in the hall, which is by no means sold out. After winning the first set without any problems, the game was much more balanced. Maria, who acted as usual with a lot of slices, increasingly got on the defensive against the frequently advancing Swiss and gave up her serve decisively in the second round to make it 3:4. In the decisive set, Maria missed two match points at 5:4, but then decided the game in the tie-break after 2:45 hours.
The number 71 in the world had like the world number 65. Jule Niemeier from Dortmund received a wild card for the strong tournament. Niemeier faces an extremely difficult task against Wimbledon champion Jelena Rybakina on Wednesday (not before 5 p.m. / Eurosport). The Hamburg qualifier Tamara Korpatsch, the third German participant in the main draw, was eliminated on Monday in the first round of the event, which was endowed with around 715,000 euros.
