01.07.2022, Großbritannien, London: Tennis: Grand Slam - Wimbledon, Einzel, Damen, 3. Runde. 1200: Niemeier (Deutschland) - Tsurenko (Ukraine). Jule Niemeier jubelt. Foto: Alberto Pezzali/AP/dpa +++ dpa-Bildfunk +++

Jule Niemeier kept touching her heart, Tatjana Maria had tears in her eyes when she thought about her family – only Angelique Kerber experienced great frustration. In contrast to the two tournament surprises, the 2018 winner failed at the grass classic in Wimbledon and missed the round of 16 with the 4: 6, 5: 7 against the Belgian Elise Mertens.

Niemeier and Maria, on the other hand, continued the fabulous series of successes and are each in the top 16 for the first time in a Grand Slam tennis tournament. The 22-year-old Niemeier defeated the Ukrainian Lessia Zurenko 6: 4, 3: 6, 6 in a nerve thriller on Friday :3 and confirmed her previous success against world number three Anett Kontaveit from Estonia.

“It just took a load off my heart, that had nothing to do with the match from two days ago today,” said Niemeier about her jubilant gesture. “I’m just really happy that I ended up winning the match, even if I didn’t play my best tennis.”

Maria, twelve years her senior, created a big surprise and won 6:3, 7:5 against world number five Maria Sakkari from Greece. In her previous nine Wimbledon attempts, she had never gotten past the third round.

“It’s hard to find words. I’m here for the first time with my two children,” said Maria on the pitch, completely overwhelmed. “It’s such a special place for me. Here I played pregnant. To be able to do this now with my family, there are no words for it. I’m just happy.” In the second set, Maria caught up a 5-2 deficit against Sakkari, who was fifth seeded, and used her second match point after 90 minutes. Now she meets the Latvian Jelena Ostapenko.

For Kerber, however, the tournament is over earlier than expected. Disappointed, she trudged over Court 1’s shoulders with a Wimbledon towel. After two easy wins, the 34-year-old lacked conviction, and in the second round she was unable to use a break advantage twice. Last year, Kerber reached the semi-finals.

Niemeier is not that far yet. The tennis hope proved again that she is also up to challenging tasks. After 2:04 hours, Niemeier converted the first match point through a backhand mistake by her opponent. In a break festival, both players stole the serve 21 times.

“I think a lot of people expected me to win that relatively easily today,” she said. “We have adjusted to it. If you beat a top ten player two days ago, you want to win the next match to prove it to yourself. That also played a role.”

For the greatest success of her career, she collects the equivalent of 219,000 euros. “It was an emotional rollercoaster ride,” said coach Christopher Kas. “We’re on a certain cloud, and we’ll just keep riding it and then we’ll see how far it takes us.”

In her Wimbledon debut, Niemeier now meets Brit Heather Watson, who defeated Tamara Korpatsch in the first round. “She’s a great player, an experienced player,” Niemeier said of her 30-year-old next opponent.

Instead of playing on Court 1 in the second largest stadium, as against Kontaveit, Niemeier played on the 18th outdoor court, and the world number 97 had windy conditions. their problems at the beginning. In her two sovereign two-set victories in the tournament, Niemeier had not yet received a break – and gave up the first of a total of ten of her service games against Zurenko right at the beginning, and that to zero.

“The match after such a match is not easy,” said coach Kas in view of the much-noticed success of Kontaveit, who was number two. The beginning got nervous, in the first three games Niemeier made ten unforced mistakes, quickly it was 0:3. She slowly came into play and equalized to make it 3:3. A mistake by Zurenko sealed the win of the first set after 49 minutes.