Bundestrainer Barbara Rittner believes German women’s tennis is ready for the future even after the surprising successes at Wimbledon.
“It was proof that we definitely have young talent,” the 49-year-old told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur. “With Jule Niemeier, we had a player in the quarter-finals who impressively proved that young talent is also up and coming, and there are still some coming up who definitely have potential. But just like Jule, they still need time to develop.”
The 22-year-old Niemeier had directly reached the round of the best eight at her second Grand Slam tournament, where she narrowly lost to Tatjana Maria, who is twelve years older. The mother of two missed her first Grand Slam final in three sets against world number two Ons Jabeur from Tunisia, but managed the best result of her long career. “Wimbledon showed what is possible when you leave everything on the court with a lot of passion and heart, how close everything is,” Rittner said.
After the successful generation around three-time Grand Slam tournament winner Angelique Kerber, Sabine Lisicki, Julia Görges and Andrea Petkovic, to which Maria also belongs, no player had made it permanently into the top class for a long time. “I always knew there was young talent coming up and this was proof of that,” Rittner said. “We can look forward to the future and calmly observe and support the development of the young players. “
