Anyone who is a little familiar with the peculiarities of the wondrous sport of tennis knew at that moment at the beginning of the second set that Laura Siegemund would not win this game. Or – thought you knew. Yes, she led 7:6, 2:1 against the heavy favorite Qinwen Zheng – but that couldn’t be anything after what had just happened in the second largest arena on the facility in Melbourne: Siegemund had the ball to make it 3-0 ; Zheng once again thundered a backhand down the line – she had missed many wildly before, and now it looked like that would happen again.
But, as the Hawkeye replay proved, the ball had actually scraped the line, maybe a millimeter. Immediately afterwards, at debut: net roller and point for Zheng. And then: Crashing forehand from Zheng, again touching the line, this time more like three millimeters – break for the Chinese. Now it was only 2:1 instead of 3:0.
These are the moments when such games usually turn over. How often has Serena Williams pulled herself out of real craters, how often Novak Djokovic showed his opponent after these sequences – just again on Monday in his first round game against the US teenager Nishesh Basavareddy: It was quite funny for you up to this point; But now it’s over! Now the favorite switches into self-confidence mode and leaves the doubts in his head to the outsider – who now begins to think about whether the surprise will really work out. That’s exactly what it looked like in this two-round game: Siegemund went to the break with a look that’s not possible and saw an opponent, angry and ready to complete this task.
Zheng is the youngest mega star in women’s tennis
Siegemund’s victory against fifth-seeded Zheng is the biggest surprise of this Australian Open so far. The 22-year-old Chinese is the youngest mega-star in women’s tennis; Her face can really be seen everywhere on the facility, and numerous partnerships with sponsors were announced before the tournament started. According to the PR plans, she should now win her first Grand Slam tournament; last year she had reached the final and triumphed at the Olympics in Paris. But the really amazing thing about this 7:6(3), 6:3 wasn’t so much, that Siegemund won. Nothing came of it, and the really amazing thing is, Why it didn’t work.
Reason one: Zheng played terribly. She missed the simplest balls – not just millimeters outside the lines, but so far that spectators in the first three rows sometimes had to fear serious injuries. “It just wasn’t my day; “I wasn’t really on the pitch and I let a lot of things distract me,” Zheng said afterwards about her total of 56 mistakes. But she also said: “I have to congratulate my opponent, she played very well and put a lot of balls into the field.”
:Looking for the missing percent
In order to win the Australian Open, Alexander Zverev continues to work on perfection. There is a lot of advice on how to finally achieve your first Grand Slam triumph. But Zverev expressly rejects one of his father’s ideas.
That’s exactly how this game can be summed up. It was like the hare-hedgehog story – only in this case the hare won in the end. “During the winter break I sometimes ask myself why I actually do this; that I’m running around so much again,” said Siegemund afterwards: “And then there is a day like this that shows you: Ah, that’s why.” Reason two for this surprise: Zheng hit the balls into the corners of the field; Siegemund achieved many of them; and at some point, the Chinese woman became impatient, unfocused, un-relaxed – and slammed the balls out of bounds or into the net.
Siegemund sensed immediately when her opponent became unsure
Reason three: Siegemund ran like a hare; But Novak Djokovic would judge that she acted like a she-wolf. She sniffed out the moments in which Zheng became unsure, and then she immediately took action: She would then throw punches herself – or occasionally throw in a stop that not only brought her the point, but showed her opponent: I can also keep up in a playful way , I won’t just wait for your mistakes, I’ll put pressure on myself. Siegemund managed 29 winning strokes, just as many as the usually ultra-aggressive Zheng.
And then, of course: the moments when tennis games turn over. Very often in favor of the favorites who are suddenly left while the person on the other side of the net tenses up. So, set one: Zheng re-breaked to 5:5 and won the game to 6:5 – but Siegemund remained completely calm, forced the tiebreak and played in it as if it were the most normal thing in the world, as number 97 in the world rankings than 10,000 spectators to tease the big tournament favorite. Or that sequence mentioned at the beginning, after which pretty much all of these spectators thought that there would definitely be a third set. “It’s a classic moment when it becomes unpleasant,” Siegemund said afterwards: “But I have to say: I’m now hard-headed and hardened.”
Siegemund marched past the net – and only allowed three points to the opponent until the next break: 4:1. Suddenly Zheng gave the “there’s no such thing” look, and suddenly everyone knew: Yes, this game is over. In favor of Siegemund. “I played incredibly – sometimes you shouldn’t underestimate yourself,” said Siegemund afterwards. She was the fitter, the more playful, the stronger of nerves – or, quite simply: the better one that day, and that is of course a statement when someone who will be celebrating her 37th birthday in six weeks can say something like that about herself a tournament favorite 15 years younger.
“I want to enjoy this for a few hours now and not think about my next opponent,” she said after her success in the first round. She was pissed because someone had told her that Zheng would be her next opponent – implying that the singles tournament would probably be over by then. “I just want to be happy and celebrate a little over dinner – and not think about what will happen in two days.”
She was granted that, even more so after this win against Zheng, about which she said: “When I now know who I’m playing against, the analysis mill immediately starts in my head. But I would now like to have the mental space to stay in the moment for a moment.” So please don’t read any further: your opponent on Friday will be determined later in the Russian Anastasia duel – Pavlyuchenkova against Potapova.
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