At the W75 tournament in Petange, Luxembourg, 18-year-old German tennis talent Eva Bennemann caused a huge surprise and defeated an opponent from the top 100 in the world rankings for the first time in her career.
Strong performance from Eva Bennemann! The DTB talent defeated Romanian Elena Gabriela Ruse, who was in second place, on Friday in Petange. After 2:42 hours, the German managed to close the bag with her fifth match point.
In the first set, Ruse, who is currently ranked 99th in the world, looked like the expected winner. The 28-year-old quickly moved ahead to 5:3 and earned two set points when Bennemann served – then the DTB talent turned up the heat and equalized.
Even with the score at 6:5 for Ruse, the favorite had a total of three chances to secure the set with her own service, but in the end Bennemann kept his nerve and got the important break to the tiebreak.
Serban is waiting for Bennemann in the quarterfinals
In the second round, Bennemann quickly moved ahead to 4-0, but was unable to bring the lead to the finish and had to go to the decider, which she was able to win by the narrowest of margins.
Ruse, who reached the third round of the US Open in 2024 and reached the main draw of the Australian Open, the French Open and Wimbledon in 2025, is the first opponent from the top 100 who Bennemann was able to defeat.
The previous best was a success against the Swiss Ylena In-Albon, who was ranked 299th when she lost to Bennemann in July 2025 at the W35 tournament in Erwitte. At the beginning of November there was also a win against the Spaniard Aliona Bolsova, then 234th in the WTA ranking, but Bennemann benefited from a task.
In the quarterfinals, Bennemann is now facing number 247 in the world rankings with Raluca Serban from Cyprus.