She is the last remaining German and Jule Niemeier stays in New York longer. Reaching the third round at the US Open, she shows impressive consistency and focus. The 23-year-old received great praise from the national coach.
Jule Niemeier spread his arms jubilantly and then took a tired, but overjoyed breath: The 23-year-old from Dortmund made it straight into the third round on her US Open debut. Niemeier prevailed on Thursday with a highly concentrated performance 6: 4, 6: 3 against the hot-headed Kazakh Julia Putinzewa and continues to hold up the German flag in New York.
"It was a close match. She started extremely well," said Niemeier after the game at Eurosport: "I'm just trying to concentrate on the essential things, I didn't get nervous. I assumed that I would play qualifiers here must, now I'm in the third round."
National coach Barbara Rittner spoke at Eurosport of an "absolutely deserved" victory: "It's always a mental match against Putinzewa. Jule plays against an established top 40 player and did it very well."
The world number 108, who now meets the Chinese Zheng Qinwen on Saturday, prevented a German player from surviving the second round of the last Grand Slam tournament of the year for the first time since 2009. Previously, for the first time since 1984, all German starters were eliminated in the men's singles. Olympic champion Alexander Zverev (after injury) and three-time Grand Slam winner Angelique Kerber (baby break) had canceled their participation.
"Aggressiveness is in demand today, she must not be intimidated," Rittner said before the second appearance of the German hopeful, who met Putinzewa for the first time in her career - a Russian-born who is a world number 38. slightly favored went into the match.
Niemeier was looking forward to the duel, she manages more and more to enjoy the duels in the spotlight of the majors. "It's not that it intimidates me," said the powerful athlete, who is in only the third time in the peloton at a major in New York.
And Niemeier tried to implement an offensive route in windy conditions in 10th place, but did not find the right balance at first and overstepped in phases. But she persistently worked her way into the match, came back with the break to make it 2:3 and began to visibly annoy Putintseva, who thundered her racket onto the hard court and lamented more and more.
With 17 winners, Niemeier earned the first set, who celebrated her Grand Slam debut at the French Open this year and then caused a sensation in Wimbledon with the run up to the German duel against Tatjana Maria in the quarterfinals. Now she showed against Putinzewa an amazingly stable nerves.
Niemeier was also not upset when her opponent asked for treatment from a physiotherapist at the beginning of the second set due to finger problems. She managed a break to make it 4:3, collected herself again and then didn't let the considerable success be taken away from her. "I'm very happy, I'll enjoy the rest of the day now and then start again tomorrow," said Niemeier.
