Australian Open as a flop
Tennis sadness causes severe “stomach ache”
1/22/2023 4:41 p.m
The Australian Open is only slowly entering the hot phase, but the German individual players have all had to say goodbye. The balance sheet is “sobering”, according to the German tennis boss. Only Laura Siegemund, who is facing a luxury problem, provides some hope.
Dietloff von Arnim is concerned and Boris Becker also has his “stomach ache” in view of the German sadness in Melbourne. The hot phase of the Australian Open is just beginning, but the German individual players have long since packed their things.
“That doesn’t match our claim that we don’t have anyone in the second week. That’s a shame and sobering,” said von Arnim, President of the German Tennis Association (DTB), and put his finger in the wound. For the first time since 2010, no professional from Germany reached the second week of the tournament in the men’s or women’s competition.
“Giant Match”
The day before, the highest man in German tennis and candidate for the presidency of the world association ITF had watched Laura Siegemund’s dashing performance on Saturday in the Kia Arena. He liked what he saw, even if it was just not enough against the French world-class player Caroline Garcia 6: 1, 3: 6, 3: 6 to make it into the round of 16. National coach and Eurosport expert Barbara Rittner gave the 34-year-old fighter from Metzingen a “grade 1” after a “gigantic match”.
Siegemund herself prepared the “luxury problem” of putting a question mark behind her career planning with a stronger focus on doubles in the future. “Of course that makes me think a bit,” said the injured athlete, who will be placed just behind 120th place in the world rankings: “There are many voices from outside, but also within my team, saying: ‘You don’t want to try some more?'”
In Melbourne, Siegemund stood out positively from a ten-man German squad, which only produced another second-round participant in Alexander Zverev on his comeback. After all the hopes of the German fans had ended, Becker stated that he had “a bit of concern and abdominal pain” with regard to the women. “We always have one or two that break through,” said the six-time Grand Slam winner, thinking primarily of climber Jule Niemeier: “But the mass, the width is missing.”
Take the example of the USA
Von Arnim announced that he wanted to look beyond his own nose in an analysis. “We have to take a close look at it when you see how strong the Americans are here. They also had a long dry spell and are back now,” said the 63-year-old: “If we don’t have the breadth for a few years, we have to we’re already wondering, why is that?”
The official hopes for some “tailwind” from the team competitions. In the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup, the German pros keep making “exclamation marks”, as von Arnim said, proving that they can beat strong opponents. He is optimistic that the trend will also prevail on the tour.