On a very bitter day for the German tennis pros at Wimbledon, Tatjana Maria alone was able to celebrate her first victory as a mother of two.
Before superstar Serena Williams conceded a dramatic comeback defeat late in the evening, the 34-year-old was the only one of seven Germans who started to reach the second round. “Wimbledon is my favourite Grand Slam and it’s the first Grand Slam match I’ve won with both daughters,” Maria enthused. “It’s very special for me.” She last won a match at the grass-court classic in 2018, and daughter Cecilia was born 14 months ago.
Corona comes back into focus
For a German sextet around the recently corona-positive Andrea Petkovic, the sporting end came. For co-favourite Matteo Berrettini, the tournament was even over before the first serve. With a black-and-white photo and sad words, last year’s finalist announced his corona infection and intensified the worries about the virus at the tournament. He was “heartbroken”, the Italian wrote and became the second prominent tennis professional after former US Open champion Marin Cilic to announce his corona-related cancellation.
With sharply rising numbers of positive tests in England and no restrictions on players as well as spectators, Corona is back in the spotlight after cancelling the tournament two years ago. “I have no words to describe how extremely disappointed I am,” Berrettini wrote on Instagram. He had reached the final against Serb Novak Djokovic in 2021 and was now one of the top favourites to win the title. Cilic had still been practising with top-seeded defending champion Djokovic on Centre Court on Thursday. Djokovic remains unvaccinated, according to his own statement.
Players and spectators alike no longer have to present proof of vaccination or prove negative tests at the All England Lawn Tennis Club. As a result, the professional section is also crowded, especially on the first days of the tournament. “When it rains, all the players and all the guests are in the restaurant and there are not many seats,” Andrea Petkovic reported after her first-round defeat by 4:6, 3:6 to Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland.
German Wimbledon debutants Nastasja Schunk (4:6, 2:6 against Romanian Mihaela Buzarnescu), Tamara Korpatsch (7:6 (9:7), 5:7, 2: 6 against Heather Watson of Great Britain), Daniel Altmaier (3:6, 5:7, 5:7 against Mikael Ymer of Sweden) and Nicola Kuhn (3:6, 7:6 (7:1), 3:6, 2:6 against Brandon Nakashima of the USA) were eliminated. The last German to lose on Tuesday was Dominik Koepfer 4-6, 5-7, 6-7 (1-7) to Daniel Galan of Colombia.
Nadal also struggled
This means that, led by Angelique Kerber, a total of five German tennis professionals are in the second round and all will be in action again on Wednesday. Serena Williams crashed out 5-7, 6-1, 6-7 (7-10) to French outsider Harmony Tan in her first singles after a year’s break. The 22-time Grand Slam tournament winner Rafael Nadal of Spain also struggled but won in four hard-fought sets against Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina.
Petkovic also argued for the return of a measure in light of her own negative Corona experience at the French Open. “If I had something to say, I would reintroduce the mask indoors,” said the 34-year-old, but also admitted: “It’s difficult because people also want to get back to normal. It’s been really hard now, two years, I can understand that.”
The Darmstadt native had contracted the corona virus about a month before Wimbledon. “I was really sick for three days and then flat for five days, I couldn’t have played like that,” Petkovic said. She assumes that she contracted it in Paris, where masks were no longer compulsory in the dressing room for the first time. She initially wore a mask for the first three days, she said. “Then people looked at me so stupidly because I was the only one.”
At Wimbledon, too, spectators – as many as 42,000 – crowd the grounds without masks, and interviews with the pros are conducted in cramped, windowless rooms. The number of positive tests in England had risen by more than a third in the previous week to more than 100 000 in seven days.
