Local hero Sabine Lisicki missed the second round of the tennis tournament in Berlin despite a convincing performance.
The long-injured Wimbledon finalist from 2013 put up a hard fight at the start of the grass event with number three seeded Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia, but ultimately had to admit defeat 6:7 (2:7), 3:6.
At her home tournament, the Berliner was allowed to start in the main draw thanks to a wild card. Against the clearly favored Garcia, Lisicki convinced with her strong service and hard groundstrokes. Only after the break to 3: 4 in the second set was their resistance broken.
After many health setbacks, the 33-year-old is fighting to join the top 100 in the world rankings, she is currently ranked 308th.
The other two German players will play their first round match on Tuesday. Wimbledon quarter-finalist Jule Niemeier has a difficult task ahead of her in a duel with last year’s winner Ons Jabeur from Tunisia. Laura Siegemund has to deal with the Russian Anna Blinkova.
Niemeier and Siegemund had secured a place in the main field through the qualification.
The $850,000 tournament at the LTTC Rot-Weiss is considered preparation for the Grand Slam event in Wimbledon (July 3rd to 16th).
Eight out of ten top 10 players are in Berlin, the final will take place next Sunday in the Steffi Graf Stadium.