For the first time in two years, Jule Niemeier is back in the third round at the US Open. But the duel with China’s Zheng Qinwen ends differently than in 2022
Jule Niemeier clearly missed a surprise against Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen at the US Open and was the last German tennis player to be eliminated in the third round. The 25-year-old from Dortmund was largely without a chance in her 2:6, 1:6 loss to the strong-serving Chinese player in 81 minutes. “Overall, it wasn’t consistent enough,” said Niemeier, summing up her tournament: ”It was a very positive week that I can be very proud of.”
The former Wimbledon quarter-finalist will move back into the top 90 of the world rankings after the Grand Slam tournament in New York and could replace Laura Siegemund as the top-ranked German player. “Of course it’s nice to be number one in Germany. But my ambition is not to be number one in Germany with a ranking of 80 or 90, but with a very good ranking,” she said.
However, the German tennis players are currently a long way from the top places, at least since the retirement of Angelique Kerber. Zheng first ended Kerber’s career at the Paris Summer Games and then won the first singles gold medal for China. Two years ago, Niemeier defeated the current world number seven in the third round, but was now clearly beaten.
Niemeier got off to a good start to the match and after a strong serve, the Grandstand, the third-largest stadium at the US Open, was filled with murmurs. Both players relied on powerful, high-risk groundstrokes, with Zheng dominating the match with her serves. In the middle of the first set, more and more errors crept into Niemeier’s game and she dropped her service twice in a row
Treatment on a blister
At 2:5, she had treatment for a blister on the big toe of her left foot, as she had done in her second-round win over Japan’s Moyuka Uchijima. A short time later, the set was already over and Niemeier disappeared from the court. But things didn’t get any better at the start of the second set, with Zheng winning seven points in a row. After a successful volley, Niemeier fired the crowd once more – but the turnaround was no longer possible.
Since reaching the round of 16 in 2022, Niemeier had not made it past the second round of a Grand Slam tournament until this edition of the US Open. However, she halted her fall to 175th in the world