WTA: Laura Siegemund continues to gain self-confidence in Rabat

Laura Siegemund continues to gain self-confidence after her comeback. Five days after her eighth-final exit from Stuttgart, the 30-year-old entered the round of the last 16 in Rabat/Morocco. After her cruciate ligament rupture and an eleven-month break, she returned to the WTA tour at the beginning of April and now awaits an ultimate endurance test.

Siegemund defeated the Romanian Ana Bogdan (WTA No. 67) in 1:32 hours 6:4, 6:1. 2:4 behind the Swabian after two breaks, but did not give up any more in the first set. She also showed a strong performance and continued her impressive performances at her home game in Stuttgart.

At last week’s Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, Siegemund, equipped with a wildcard, first clearly defeated the Czech Barbora Strycova before she then had to admit defeat in three sets in the round of 16 of the later finalist Coco Vandeweghe (USA). As she lost many points as defending champion, Siegemund fell by 126 places to rank 226 in the world rankings published on Monday.

The psychologist is now facing a special challenge in Morocco’s capital Rabat: In the duel to reach the quarter-finals of the sand court event worth 250,000 dollars, Siegemund will meet the top seeded Elise Mertens.

The number 19 in the WTA ranking reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open in January – and only failed there when Caroline Wozniacki from Denmark, who later won the tournament, came out on top.

She recently proved that Mertens (22) is still in good shape by winning the title in Lugano/Switzerland. In Rabat, she gave her opening opponent Kristina Kucova (Slovakia) 6:0, 6:0 a flawless “glasses”. Siegemund and Mertens have never played against each other on the WTA tour.