While it was the next severe setback for one of the hopes of German tennis, other DTB players celebrated notable successes.
At the end of July 2023, Noma Noha Akugue reached the final of a WTA tournament for the first time in her career. Although she lost the final against the Dutchwoman Arantxa Rus in her hometown of Hamburg, she climbed to 142nd place in the world tennis rankings. The path to the top 100 seemed to be on the way actually leveled – then it went steeply downhill.
At the Polish Open, shortly after her career best performance in Hamburg, the German reached the quarter-finals again, and the same applies to the WTA event in Bucharest in 2023.
Nobody would have thought that the defeat in the round of the last eight in Romania against former French Open finalist Sara Errani, despite a good performance, would be a kind of turning point.
Since then, Noha Akugue has been waiting for a victory on the tour. On Tuesday evening, the 20-year-old was defeated by Magali Kempen from Belgium (number 318 in the world rankings) in three sets at the W75 tournament in Altenkirchen, 6:4, 0:6 and 3:6.
Kempen, who impressed with a strong serve against the DTB hopes, won the W50 tournament in Edgbaston (Great Britain) the previous week.
German tennis hope falls out of the top 200
Due to what is now the twelfth defeat in a row, Noha Akugue will even fall out of the top 200 of the WTA rankings, which will not make future tasks any easier.
After all: Away from the professional tour, Noha Akugue was able to celebrate success in December. At the German Championships in Biberach, the top favorite reached the semi-finals, where she had to give up against Nastasja Schunk.
By the way, Schunk is also at the start in Altenkirchen. The 20-year-old, who is now only at number 792 in the world rankings due to an injury, but has shown signs in recent weeks that things are looking up again, starts the tournament on Wednesday against Briton Emiliy Appleton.
Also competing on Wednesday from the DTB are Angelina Wirges (number 590 in the world rankings), Stephanie Wagner (number 548 in the world rankings), Kathleen Kanev (number 421 in the world rankings) and the 15-year-old Julia Stusek (number 922 in the world rankings).
Best performance for 18 year olds
Antonia Schmidt caused a surprise not in Altenkirchen, but at the W35 tournament in Nakhon Si Thammarat (Thailand). The world number 567 defeated the top seeded Greek Valentini Grammopoulou (number 214 in the world rankings) in the first round with 6:3, 4:6 and 7:6.
At the small M15 event in Oberhaching, the 18-year-old Vincent Marysko (number 1325 in the world rankings) was also able to prevail against the Italian Luca Giacomini (number 631 in the world rankings), but benefited from his opponent’s surrender after winning the first set. Still remarkable: in his young career, the German has never won against such a high-ranking opponent.
2024-02-14 11:43:00
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