National tennis coach Barbara Rittner tries to take a differentiated look at the Wimbledon successes of Tatjana Maria and especially Jule Niemeier.
“The strong performances give German women’s tennis a boost. But I see excessive euphoria with a smile as well as the excessive criticism of late,” said the 49-year-old in the sports talk on “Deutschlandfunk”.
Maria had celebrated the greatest success of her career in the British tennis Mecca by reaching the semifinals at the age of 34 and as a mother of two. At least as sensational was the result of Maria’s quarter-final opponent Niemeier, who was twelve years her junior, in only the second Grand Slam tournament of her career.
“I’m proud,” Rittner summed up after the most important tournament in the world and also admitted “satisfaction” in view of the criticism of her players on the way to the Grand Slam lawn tournament in London.
She renewed her assessment that Maria’s and Niemeier’s appearances were advertising for German women’s tennis: “The way they presented themselves, not only on the pitch but also around the pitch, that was absolutely great.”
Rittner sees potential in Germany
Although Maria was “an even bigger surprise than Jule Niemeier” from Rittner’s point of view and older players such as former Wimbledon champion Angelique Kerber and former top 10 player Andrea Petkovic could still celebrate success, Niemeier in particular is a change for the trainer the future.
“Neither in the bad phases did I lose the courage or confidence to believe in the youngsters because I know what comes next. And there is a whole series of players behind a Jule Niemeier who definitely have the potential , but they still need a bit of time to develop.”
In this context, Rittner also admitted her personal surprise by Niemeier’s entry into the round of the top eight at Wimbledon: With the Westphalian “I know and knew what was in her and that at some point the knot would burst. That it would burst so early, with it I didn’t really expect it.”