Laura Siegemund caused a surprise at the WTA tournament in Wuhan, China, reaching the round of 16. The 37-year-old from Metzingen defeated world number five Mirra Andrejewa, who was shaken by her emotions, 6:7 (4:7), 6:3, 6:3 after a strong fight.
Wimbledon quarter-finalist Siegemund started strongly against the favored Andrejewa and hit the young Russian with her variable game. The Swabian countered with good length from the baseline and moved to the net as soon as the opportunity arose. At the end of the first set, Andrejewa was visibly struggling with her game, hitting the racket on the ground more often and repeatedly bursting into tears – but the top talent still secured passage in the tiebreak.
Andreeva makes a lot of double faults
But Siegemund was undeterred. The 57th in the world rankings played offensively, also benefited from many double faults from Andrejewa, who was struggling with emotions, and deservedly grabbed set number two. In the third round, the completely frustrated Andrejewa’s will was finally broken – and Siegemund stormed to success.
Siegemund is the only German starter in the strong 1000 tournament in the metropolis of eight million. The Swabian, who used her second match point to win after 3:01 hours of play, will now face Czech Karolina Muchova or Magdalena Frech from Poland in the round of 16.