Jule Niemeier saw two match points come and go in her third and final qualifying round at the 2021 Wimbledon, falling short of a main draw spot in agonising fashion. A year later on the same grass courts of All England Club, Niemeier was among the last eight standing in women’s singles.
The 23-year-old German has rolled along from just her second Grand Slam main draw appearance a couple of months ago into the third, showing much progress and penchant for the big stage at this US Open.
Niemeier swept past the fast-rising Chinese teen and world No 39 Zheng Qinwen 6-4, 7-6(5) on Saturday night for a place in the fourth round, where world No 1 Iga Swiatek awaits. Ranked 108, Niemeier has been clinical at Flushing Meadows, taking out 2020 Australian Open winner Sofia Kenin and the 38th-ranked Kazakh Yulia Putintseva in straight sets in the first two rounds.
As impressive as her rise may seem from one Wimbledon to another, Niemeier’s growth chart hasn’t been as burgeoning as that of, say, overnight star Emma Raducanu or teen wonder Coco Gauff. More steady than sensational.
A Borussia Dortmund fan who played football as a kid, Niemeier was a top-30 youth player without any major success on the junior tour. She turned pro in 2016 and competed in her first WTA main draw match only three years later, a first-round defeat in Nuremberg.
It was only last year that Niemeier picked up pace at the elite level. In May, she stormed into the semi-finals of the WTA 250 event in Strasbourg as a qualifier. Niemeier beat Andrea Petkovic, her more seasoned compatriot, and Shelby Rogers, her first win against a top-50 player, before losing in three sets to Czech fifth seed Barbora Krejcikova, the eventual winner. Two months later, Niemeier made the WTA semi-final in Hamburg, upsetting No 8 seed Caroline Garcia and third seed Tamara Zidansek.
The big wins began cropping up. The biggest though came in the second round of this year’s Wimbledon, where she beat No 2 seed Anett Kontaveit 6-4, 6-0. In the Round of 16, she brushed aside home favourite Heather Watson for a surprise quarter-final berth after a first-round exit in her maiden Slam main draw at the French Open. Niemeier broke into the top-100 rankings in May and would have been placed a lot higher now had Wimbledon offered ranking points.
“In the first couple of matches against top players, I was hesitating a bit,” Niemeier, coached by former German pro Christopher Kas, said in London. “I thought I have to play something special. If you play those players, you just have to stay there. You have to play every point. You have to stay consistent, just focus on every point.”
Niemeier has a strong serve and an even stronger forehand—her final two winning points in the second set tiebreaker against Zheng were both crisp on-the-rise, inside-out forehand winners—but is ever-improving in trying to “mix it up a bit” and “be creative on court”.
Niemeier’s continued rise couldn’t be timed better from the German tennis viewpoint. Petkovic, 34, called it quits after losing in the first round of this US Open while 34-year-old Angelique Kerber, the country’s top player, withdrew from the tournament after announcing her pregnancy. The only other top-100 German female, Tatjana Maria, is also 35.
The recent retirements of former top 10 Julia Goerges and top 20 Anna-Lena Groenefeld had sparked concerns in the country’s tennis circles about a looming hole. Niemeier seems to be doing the right things to fill that gap.
“It’s funny—someone was just passing today and said, ‘Oh, there’s the new German top player, blah blah blah’,” Niemeier told WTA last year. “You just have to learn how to handle it. I mean, it’s an honour to be the one who can be one of the best players in Germany after such a good generation with Petko, Kerber and Goerges. I feel more honoured than I feel pressure.”
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