From the perspective of the German tennis hopefuls, Tuesday seemed to be forgotten a day. After a month, which she would like to cut quickly, Noma Noha Akugue tore the rudder for the DTB again late Tuesday evening.
The former top 15-player, who started the WTA ranking in the week after a more mixed year, reached the quarter-finals of the Challenger tournament in Mallorca and turned a total DTB disaster on the Spanish island.
The 21-year-old Hamburg native hit Carole Monnet from France 6: 4, 4: 6 and 7: 6 and proved nerves made of steel.
In the last sentence, the German gave up their service at 5: 5, looked down with two match balls when the monet has been served, but remained calm, got the break and mowed her opponent in the tie -break. With 7: 1, Noha Akugue finally prevailed and booked the ticket for the round of the last eight.
Nohach Akugue had previously struggled with the important points. The German champion of 2020 had to allow four breaks with four break chances of Monnet and was only able to use four out of eleven chances, but the brilliant final sprint then brought the turn to in favor of Noha Akugue, who lost four of her five matches in September.
DTB talents sniff surprises – but nothing more
Previously, all other German starters had already failed in Mallorca with Mariella Thamm, Mona Barthel, Caroline Werner, Julia Stusek and Mina Hodzic. Hodzic (number 500 of the world rankings) showed the best performance in the wafer -thin 5: 7, 7: 5 and 6: 7 against the clearly favored Czech Sara Beljek (number 107 of the world rankings).
Elsewhere, the German tennis talents were not particularly good. Niels McDonald (1048 of the world rankings), junior winner of the French Open 2025, lost at the M25 event in Santa Margherita di Pula, Italy against the Italian Massimo Giunta (number 781 of the world rankings) after top start with 6: 0, 3: 6 and 4: 6. Diego Dedura (number 333 of the world rankings) had to give up at the Challenger in Valencia against Spaniard Carlos Taberner (number 104 of the world rankings) at 6: 3, 4: 6 and 2: 4 and surprisingly lost to the Swiss qualifier Mika Brunold (number 328) in Roanne (France/Challenger) World rankings) with 4: 6 and 4: 6).