LONDON: Germany’s Laura Siegemund continues to prove age is just a number as she continues her breakthrough run at Wimbledon.
The 37-year-old defeated Argentine lucky loser Solana Sierra 6-3, 6-2, to become the oldest player in the Open Era to reach their first quarter-final at SW19. Siegemund made her Wimbledon main draw debut back in 2015 and is currently playing in her 29th Grand Slam. She is currently the third-oldest player in the top 200 after No.121 Varvara Lepchenko and No.45 Tatjana Maria.
“I feel joy and pride because I try very much not to get overly excited. I can do that after the tournament, but right now I feel like I still have a job to do, and it’s not done yet.” Siegemund said of her milestone victory.
“You’re tempted to get so euphoric and so happy about what you’ve achieved, but there is a time for that at a different point.
“Right now I am just very focused on my job, on my game, because there are always things that I think I can do better.”
Siegemund, who also reached the last eight of the French Open in 2020, has beaten two seeded players so far at Wimbledon. They were the 29th seed, Leylah Fernandez, in the second round, and the sixth seed, Madison Keys, in the third round. Until this year, she had never won back-to-back main draw matches at the tournament.
The next challenge for the Tour veteran will be a showdown against world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka, who battled past Elise Mertens 6-4, 7-6(5), in her fourth round match. Siegemund will be the outsider but she has already claimed two scalps over top 10 players at majors this season. Besides beating Keys at Wimbledon, she also knocked Qinwen Zheng out of the Australian Open.
“If you had told me I would play quarterfinals here (at Wimbledon), I would have never believed it,” Siegemund commented.
“As I said after big wins before, I have this game and this maybe boldness to take out big names. I’ve always had that, maybe because I don’t care who is on the other side. In a positive, respectful way, I don’t care.
“I’m just focusing on me and my job. That’s it. I don’t play against a name. I play against someone who plays in a certain style.”
“Maybe that’s the secret why I play good against good people, I don’t know.”
As to what the secret has been to Siegemund’s success on the grass, she believes a longer preparation had a massive impact. Although she lost her first round match in Nottingham after coming through qualifying. Then, in Bad Homburg, she was beaten by Victoria Azarenka.
“I feel I have good stuff for grass. I love to come to the net. Love the slice. But I felt like I never really had enough time to kind of get confidence from my grass game, and maybe the precision here and there and when to do what,” she explained.
“This time I had already had a few matches in Nottingham, and I felt that I had more matches, and I had more opportunity to get this confidence, and it’s showing.”
However, she admits she is far from perfect on the Tour. Especially when it comes to the speed of her game at times.
“I was always slow, talking about time violations and stuff. That’s nothing that just got invented now,” she jokes.
“I’m pretty consistent with my weirdness that I have, let’s say. It’s nothing. I do it for myself and not against others, but it does lead to confrontation sometimes. That’s how I am.”
