Wimbledon semi-finalist Tatjana Maria has lost her first match on the WTA tour since the All England Club coup.
The 34-year-old lost clearly 2: 6, 5: 7 in her first round match to the Chinese Wang Xiyu at the hard court tournament in Washington. Maria gave up her first two service games in the first set, in the second round Wang broke the German to make it 6:5.
The mother of two missed the opportunity to work her way up from 101st place in the world rankings about a month after the greatest success of her career. Most recently, Maria surprisingly did not play her game against Frenchwoman Leolia Jeanjean at the clay court tournament in Lausanne in mid-July.
Andrea Petkovic had previously returned to the tournament well. After her injury-related quarter-finals in Hamburg, she beat the number eight seeded Dane Clara Tauson 6: 2, 6: 2 and meets Rebecca Marino in the round of 16.
Koepfer is also eliminated
Dominik Koepfer also missed the round of 16 at the ATP tournament in Washington. The world number 145, who made it into the main draw as a qualifier, lost to number seven seeded Karen Khachanov from Russia 7: 6 (7: 3), 5: 7, 4: 6. At the previous US tournaments in Newport (grass) and Atlanta (hard court), Koepfer failed because of his opening opponents.
After 2:46 hours, Khachanov converted his second match point, before he had taken Koepfer’s serve early in the third set. Peter Gojowczyk had already retired before the 28-year-old. The Munich player lost in round one against Frenchman Benoit Paire in straight sets.
The tournament in Washington is part of the North American hard-court season, which will culminate with the US Open starting August 29 in New York.