Laura Siegemund improves and shows strong nerves in the second set. Now a maximum difficulty awaits at her home tournament
Laura Siegemund has reached the round of 16 at her home tournament in Stuttgart after a great fight.
The 38-year-old Swabian beat the Bulgarian Wiktorija Tomowa 4:6, 7:6 (7:4), 6:1 in the first round of the highly competitive WTA tournament and made a successful start to her clay court season. It was only Siegemund’s fourth win of the year.
Tennis: Swiatek awaits Siegemund
“If you’re not playing well, you just have to fight. And that’s what I did and once again found the switch in time,” said Siegemund. The German number one will now face a tough opponent in the round of 16: four-time French Open winner Iga Swiatek from Poland. She has recently been struggling with form problems.
“I have nothing to lose,” said Siegemund. Following the withdrawal of world number one Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus), Swiatek is the top favorite for the title alongside Australian Open winner Yelena Rybakina (Kazakhstan).
German women aim to lift the mood
Siegemund had triumphed in Stuttgart in 2017 and celebrated her greatest success in singles, but had been waiting for a win at the 500 tournament since 2022. She fought her way into the match against Tomowa after a weak start and showed strong nerves in the tiebreak of the second set after trailing 0:4. After a further improvement, she used her first match point to win after almost three hours of play.
In addition to Siegemund, four other Germans will be playing in Stuttgart: Eva Lys, Ella Seidel, Tamara Korpatsch (all Hamburg) and Noma Noha Akugue (Reinbek). Seidel and Akugue have a quick chance to lift their spirits: both were relegated to the third division with national coach Torben Beltz’s Billie Jean King Cup team in Portugal on Saturday.
