With Tatjana Maria (36 years old / 55th place in the world rankings) and Laura Siegemund (35 years old / 84th place in the world rankings), German tennis currently has the two oldest athletes in the top 100 of the WTA rankings. The only other German representative and therefore the association’s top 100 “chick” is Tamara Korpatsch in 81st place, who at 28 is no longer a great bet for the future. A circumstance that mercilessly underlines what is no longer a secret: German women’s tennis has a youth problem – although there doesn’t seem to be a lack of talent.
When the three-time Grand Slam winner Angelique Kerber made it clear in the summer that she would return to the WTA tour after her maternity break in 2024, German tennis fans finally had faint hopes of real great moments, perhaps even victories at major events at least in larger tournaments. However, the fact that the former number one, with almost 36 years, is the greatest hope of the former tennis nation Germany is a shockingly profound insight.
Although the DTB certainly has some players among women who can be trusted to make the leap to the top of the world, there have been no major leaps for months.
If you look at the tennis talents who are already in the top 1000 of the tennis world before their 20th birthday, the DTB is represented at least six times. With 15-year-old Julia Stusek (916th in the world rankings) they even have the fourth youngest player.
Success only outside of the absolute tennis elite
However, it is also true that ten nations, including Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, France, Great Britain, Japan, Russia and the USA, have significantly more talent among the top 1000 players in the ranking and – supposedly as puzzling as they are bitter – that the majority of young German players seem to be stagnating.
Noma Noha Akugue (19 years old/ranked 175 in the world rankings), the currently best-placed German tennis teenager, has been considered the next top German player since winning the German Championships in 2020, but the Hamburg native has never made it into the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament . In 2023 she reached the final of a WTA tournament in Hamburg for the first time, but on the way to the final Noha Akugue only had to eliminate one player from the top 100, and recently there have been more and more defeats against players who are far behind the German in the rankings .
However, 18-year-old Ella Seidel (ranked 192 in the world rankings), who has already won three ITF tournaments in 2023 and also reached one or two semi-finals or even finals, has presented herself strongly in the past few months. The fact that Seidel has made a huge leap in the WTA ranking compared to the previous year cannot be dismissed – but the same applies to the fact that the yield at the WTA level so far is food for thought: In 2023, Seidel was only in Hamburg Main field, and that because of a wildcard. She couldn’t record a victory.
Boris Becker puts his finger in the wound
With their manageable experience on the elite tour, Noha Akugue and Seidel are still a little ahead of the other DTB talents among the top 1000. Carolina Kuhl (18 years old/rank 482 in the world rankings), Joelle Steur (19 years old/rank 664 in the world ranking list), Stusek (15 years old/rank 916 in the world ranking list) and Marie Vogt (18 years old/rank 998 in the world ranking list) have never been allowed to take part get a taste of the big stage at a WTA event.
Given their young age, an enormous leap is of course still possible for all of the players listed, but only Stusek is really confident at the moment, as she often surprises her opponents, who are usually significantly older, with her carefully measured participation in tournaments.
Even if some players make the leap to the top of the world in the coming years, a fundamental problem with young talent in German tennis cannot be hidden. “We don’t have the offspring we want,” German tennis legend Boris Becker recently put his finger in the wound in the “Eurosport” podcast “Das Gelbe vom Ball”. “They are sobering facts. That is the reality,” said Becker.
Marc Affeldt