Even if Angelique Kerber and Alexander Zverev have been among the best in the world for years, the shine of the former tennis nation Germany has long since evaporated. However, a trend is slowly emerging that gives hope.
Alexander Zverev greets from third place in the world rankings and is therefore the flagship of German tennis, at least in terms of sport, but behind it hardly any athletes make any claims among the men.
Apart from Zverev, there are only eight other Germans among the top 200 in the world. The fact that Oscar Otte in 58th place is number two in the DTB and Daniel Altmaier (66th place) at 23 is clearly the youngest player in the second guard underlines how bad the white sport is in Germany.
Especially since the picture for the women is even more frightening: Kerber is still at the top as 19th in the world rankings, but there are only five other DTB players among the top 200 – and yet there are tender ones when looking at the WTA ranking Signs that things are going uphill.
On the one hand there is 20-year-old Eva Lys, who after surprisingly winning the German Championship in 2021 is slowly but surely gaining a foothold among the elite. The German-Ukrainian is currently number 251 in the world, but for Lys this is the best place in her career so far, and the trend is right.
Lys recently celebrated her first win on the WTA tour in Stuttgart, followed by solid appearances at smaller tournaments in Zagreb and Wiesbaden, and in Karlsruhe the talent is currently in the league after a 2-1 set win against Ekaterine Gorgodze, after all the 111 in the world the 2nd round.
Niemeier is already the German number three
Things are going even better for 22-year-old Jule Nemeier, who has been listed in 94th place this week for the first time among the top 100 players in the world – only two Germans are better.
On clay, Niemeier only lost two matches this year (8 wins). The 6: 7 and 3: 6 against the former US Open winner Bianca Andreescu can be seen as a better kind of bankruptcy.
Niemeier was even able to win the event in Zagreb and in Wiesbaden she only failed in the semifinals. Incidentally, like Lys, the German is in round two in Karlsruhe.
Nastaja Schunk did not succeed in this feat after a narrow 6: 4, 4: 6 and 1: 6 against US girl Bernarda Pera, the third vertical rater in German women’s tennis only lost the final in Wiesbaden after she lost in the semifinals for Niemeier’s second clay court defeat 2022 was responsible.
For Schunk, this success meant a jump of 63 places to 165th place in the world rankings. At just 18, she has also appeared on the WTA Tour a number of times. So far, there have been no major successes, but the quarter-finals in Karlsruhe 2021, round two in Marbella 2022 and narrow opening defeats in Miami and Stuttgart 2022 fuel expectations that the trio listed will revive German tennis somewhat.
There is only a glimmer of hope for the men
And with the gentlemen? Admittedly, the valley that the DTB men are going through in bulk seems to be seeing very little sun at the moment, but with Max Hans Rehberg there is currently an 18-year-old who could start his breakthrough in 2022.
The youngster is currently ranked 1062 in the ATP world rankings. In recent weeks, however, he has celebrated his first successes in smaller tournaments. On the way to the final in Meerbusch, the newcomer defeated Louis Wessels, among others, who is listed in 345th place.
A success that Rehberg seemed miles away from just a few months ago.