The German number one is playing on three different surfaces in nine days – and the switch to hard court has not gone well for her.
Tennis player Tatjana Maria has started her preparations for the US Open with a defeat. At the WTA tournament in Washington, D.C., the German number one lost 4-6, 5-7 to American Taylor Townsend in the first round on hard court. Maria was the only German player at the tournament in the US capital, which has a prize fund of around $1.3 million.
For the 37-year-old, it was her third different surface in nine days. On July 13, she lost the final of the grass court Challenger in Newport before playing on clay in Hamburg three days later.
The switch to hard court did not work out for the mother of two from Bad Saulgau. Maria was leading 4-0 in the second set, but Townsend, ranked 97th in the world, fought her way back and took advantage of her first match point against the world number 37 to win.
The last Grand Slam of the year in New York begins on August 24. Maria has never made it past the second round at Flushing Meadows.