‘I think we made Germany proud’: Maria reaches Wimbledon semi-final after Niemeier tussle

Tatjana Maria advanced to her first-ever Slam semi-final at Wimbledon by edging out Jule Niemeier 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London on Tuesday afternoon.

As she did against Jelena Ostapenko, Maria did things the hard way. She was up a set and a break twice – 1-0 in the second and 4-2 in the third. It happened three times in the fourth round against the Latvian – leading 3-0 and 4-1 in the second set, and then 2-0 in the third before finally winning 5-7, 7-5, 7-5.

“I have goosebumps everywhere,” the 34-year-old said on the court afterwards. “It was such a tough match against Jule… I think today we made Germany really proud after our match.”

This was the fifth time in the Open era that two German women had reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals, following 1987 (Kohde and Graf), 2012 (Kerber and Lisicki), 2014 (Kerber and Lisicki) and 2018 (Kerber and Goerges).

Maria, ranked No 103, will play her dear friend, Tunisian Ons Jabeur, the No 3 seed, next. And she will be cheered on by her husband and two daughters – the youngest of whom is only a year old.

Only three other women played the semis at Wimbledon not being ranked in the Top 100 : Mirjana Lucic in 1999 (#134), Jie Zheng in 2008 (#133), Serena Williams in 2018 (#181).

Maria : “A dream to live this with my family”

“It’s a dream to live this with my family, my two little girls,” she said. “One year ago, I gave birth! It’s crazy.”

Tatjana Maria is only the seventh female player in the Open Era to reach the quarter-finals at Wimbledon after
turning 34. All the others are legends: Billie Jean King, Virginia Wade, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Serena Williams and Venus Williams.

Earlier in the tournament, Tatjana Maria defeated Australian qualifier Astra Sharma (4-6, 6-3, 6-4), Romanian Sorana Cirstea, the No 26 seed (6-3, 1-6, 7-5), Greek Maria Sakkari, the No 5 seed (6-3, 7-5) and Latvian Jelena Ostapenko, the No 12 seed (5-7, 7-5, 7-5).

Niemeier, ranked No 97, won against Chinese Xiyu Wang (6-1, 6-4), Estonian Anett Kontaveit, the second seed (6-4, 6-0), Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko (6-4, 3-6, 6-3) and Heather Watson (6-2, 6-4) in the previous rounds. It was only her third career WTA-level quarterfinal after having done so in Strasbourg 2021 and Hamburg 2021.

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Wimbledon (Grand Slam), other quarter-finals :

• Simona Halep vs. Amanda Anisimova
• Ajla Tomljanovic vs. Elena Rybakina
• Marie Bouzkova vs. Ons Jabeur