Hamburg WTA tournament
Local hero Akugue am Rothenbaum surprisingly in the semifinals
As of: 7:17 p.m. | Reading time: 2 minutes
In a nutshell
Source: dpa
A German tennis talent causes a stir at Rothenbaum. For a duo, on the other hand, the tournament is over. Zverev will open again on Friday.
Noma Noha Akugue surprisingly reached the semifinals at the tennis tournament in Hamburg. The 19-year-old from Reinbek defeated the Italian Martina Trevisan 5: 7, 6: 4, 7: 5 at the Rothenbaum clay court event on Thursday and is in a WTA semi-final for the first time in her career. Jule Niemeier, on the other hand, was eliminated after beating Daria Saville from Australia 3:6, 2:6, as did Eva Lys from Hamburg, who lost 6:2, 6:2 to Arantxa Rus from the Netherlands.
After the strong performances so far, Akugue also convinced against Trevisan. Despite losing the first set, the world number 207 remained. on and balanced. In the decision-making process, a fight developed for every point. Akugue won the set 7:5 and could hardly believe her luck. With tears in his eyes, the talent rejoiced with the cheering Hamburg audience.
Niemeier struggles with her game
As in the previous round, the 23-year-old Niemeier did not get into the match well. The world rankings-225. Saville therefore got the first round after 51 minutes. There was an improvement for the world number 106. Niemeier not in the second sentence either. The former Melbourne top 20 player capitalized on the Germans’ mistakes and converted her second match point into victory after 1:35 hours. “I should have played the ball more consistently,” complained Niemeier, who missed her second semi-final in Hamburg after 2021. “I couldn’t do that today.”
The round of the top eight was also the end of the line for Lys. Against the number seven seeded Rus, the Kiev-born had world number 167. after great performances in the rounds before, hardly a chance and said goodbye to the Hamburg tournament after 1:16 hours. “Rus had an answer for everything. I was a bit out of breath,” said the 21-year-old.
Top players in quarterfinals
Today the men continue with the quarterfinals of Alexander Zverev from Hamburg against Frenchman Luca Van Assche, Casper Ruud from Norway meets Arthur Fils from France.