An unexpected first quarter-final: the Germans Jule Niemeier (97th in the world) and Tatjana Maria (103rd) will face each other on Tuesday for a place in the last four at Wimbledon. Niemeier, who is only playing her second Grand Slam tournament, beat Briton Heather Watson (109th) 6-2, 6-4 on Center Court.
At 22, she entered the top 100 players in the world for the first time last May. For her part, Maria, who has been back from maternity for less than a year, eliminated the Latvian Jelena Ostapenko (17th) 5-7, 7-5, 7-5.
At 34, Maria is the oldest player still in contention in the round of 16. She had never previously passed the third round in a Grand Slam, already reached at Wimbledon in 2015. To achieve this this year, she had beaten the Greek and 5th world Maria Sakkari, her first victory against a Top 10 player. global. She herself was still beyond the 250th place in the world last March.