Last year’s semi-finalist Tatjana Maria was eliminated in the first round at Wimbledon. The German number one lost in rainy London on Wednesday against Sorana Cirstea from Romania 1: 6, 6: 2, 3: 6 and was the second German tennis player to miss the second round of the classic lawn. Anna-Lena Friedsam had already failed on Monday, and no games with German participation took place on Tuesday due to rain. In 2022, Maria had won against Cirstea in three sets in the second round.
Maria didn’t seem to have gotten over the long wait because of the rain. The 35-year-old initially found no rhythm at all and was quickly 1:5 behind. After that, the game was interrupted for more than an hour due to the bad weather. Maria used the break to collect herself. 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, who only lost in three sets in the semifinals last year against Ons Jabeur, could not maintain the level. In the deciding set, Cirstea managed a quick break, after 1:37 hours the Romanian converted her first match point.
Wait, wait, wait
The third day of the tournament at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club was again marked by many interruptions and delays due to rain. Olympic champion Alexander Zverev completed a short training session in the drizzle in the morning, otherwise the German number one, like everyone else, had to wait, wait, wait again. Zverev’s first round game against qualifier Gijs Brouwer from the Netherlands was scheduled for the late afternoon.
Pirmin Clossé, London Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 6 Published/Updated: Recommendations: 1 Thomas Klemm Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 3
The second round encounter between Nuremberg qualifier Maximilian Marterer and American Michael Mmoh has already been postponed to Thursday due to the time delay.
