At the beginning of the week, Noma Noha Akugue was one of the biggest worries in German tennis, and a few days later the Hamburg native pulled herself out of a crazy quagmire of bankruptcy.
Noma Noha Akugue lost twelve matches in a row between September 2023 and February 2024. The German hopeful even lost twice against players who were not ranked among the best 400 in the world at the time of the match. In total she only won three sets during this time – then came the W75 tournament in Porto.
In Portugal, the 20-year-old German first surprisingly swept the Romanian Elena Gabriela Ruse (number 158 in the world rankings) off the court with 6:2 and 6:1, then beat local hero Francisca Jorge (number 199 in the world rankings) with 6 in the round of 16 :4, 3:6 and 6:2 and defeated the Spaniard Leyre Romero Gormaz (number 290 in the world rankings) in three sets (6:4, 3:6 and 6:4) in the round of the last eight on Friday .
The victory against the 21-year-old was in the balance for a long time, both players got a total of five breaks and 91 points each, but given the past few months it is all the more impressive that Noha Akugue still decided the game in her favor.
German tennis talent can hope for a second tournament victory
However, perhaps the biggest chunk of the tournament awaits in the semi-finals: the top-seeded Spaniard Marina Bassols (number 107 in the world rankings), who in turn has to compete against the Dutchwoman Suzan Lamens (number 203 in the world rankings) in the quarter-finals.
For now, Noha Akugue can still hope for the second tournament victory of her career. So far she has only won the small W15 tournament in Cairo in 2022. In addition, the greatest success of her career to date was reaching the final of the WTA tournament in Hamburg in 2023.
It is already clear that the German will return to the top 200 in the world.