She threw away her tennis racket to express her disbelief. Jule Niemeier put his hands on his head and stared in disbelief at the wide expanse of Court No.1 in Wimbledon with his mouth open, while Anett Kontaveit stood by the net to congratulate him.
Amazement, which was quite appropriate. In her first duel with a top ten player, the Dortmund player put in a top performance in front of an unusually large crowd and easily defeated the number two seeded Estonian 6:4, 6:0 in just 58 minutes.
“I’m speechless to be honest. Winning the game on Court 1 at Wimbledon is a great feeling,” said Niemeier on the court. “It’s one of the best matches I’ve ever played. I was pretty nervous before the game.”
With that, Niemeier managed the biggest surprise of this tournament so far at the grass classic in Wimbledon. In addition, the 22-year-old, who prevailed against the Chinese Wang Xiyu in the first round, remains without losing a serve on her debut.
“I love playing on grass,” said Niemeier. “It’s a special surface, it suits my game, I love it.”
Last year, Niemeier narrowly missed the first jump into the Wimbledon main draw and, after the French Open a month ago, is only taking part in a Grand Slam for the second time.
The world rankings-97. showed no nerves from the start in the second largest Wimbledon stadium and kept up with Kontaveit. A backhand error by the Estonian coached by Torben Beltz, Angelique Kerber’s former coach, brought Niemeier the break to 3:2. With overview and wit, she kept the lead and used her second set ball after 32 minutes with a finely placed long forehand.
Kontaveit showed nerves, conceded another break due to a double fault right at the beginning of the second set. The Estonian, who had never made it past the third round at Wimbledon, was completely impressed. Niemeier pulled away easily and mercilessly exploited her opponent’s weaknesses. After another mistake by Kontaveit, the coup was complete.
For her greatest success in a Grand Slam, the German collects more than 138,000 euros and, given the top form she has shown, can count on a chance of participating in the round of 16. The next opponent is the Ukrainian Anhelina Kalinina or her compatriot Lessia Zurenko.
