Weeks steeped in history are coming to an end for Grabher for the time being

In her second appearance in a major tournament at a Grand Slam tournament after the Australian Open at the start of the year, she achieved at least her first success with a 6:2, 6:3 against Dutch qualifier Arantxa Rus (WTA 114). But on Thursday, the 2023 French Open adventure came to an end for Julia Graber, as the 26-year-old was eliminated from the evening’s Paris clay classic in the second main round. The woman from Vorarlberg (WTA 61) had to concede defeat to Coco Gauff (WTA 6) who finished 6th, after 68 minutes playing 2: 6, 3: 6. This makes Sebastien Offner the last domestic hope in singles competitions at Roland Garros. Styrian qualifier (ATP 118) challenges Italy’s Fabio Fognini (ATP 130) on Friday in a clash for his first major round of 16 in game three after 11:00 a.m. on Court 14. In the doubles event, Sam Weissborn also plays in the first round of 16th at this level: The Viennese and Monaco’s Romain Arnaeudo meet Germans Kevin Krawietz and Tim Butz, seeded 11, in the second match after 11:00. am in court 13.

Grabher is self-critical: “The serve was decisive”

After the five-movement, 5:26-hour crime thriller by German writer Daniel Altmaier and southerner Janick Senner, Graber had to wait a long time before she was allowed into the court of Suzanne Lenglen, the second-largest square in the Bois de Boulogne complex. However, the protégé of Austrian star coach Gunther Bresnik was not overshadowed by the impressions gathered during such a grand performance. The player from Dornbirn entered the match right away, had two break points in the first game, which she could not take advantage of, but kept her serve in the next game (despite being 15:40 behind). However, she should only be able to do it again on her last service game. Gauff initially took the lead from 1:1 and gained 5:1 and 30:0. Grabher often didn’t get a chance to use his powerful forehand and put more pressure on her opponent. Although she managed a new break, another break from Gauff in the next bout resulted in a first round loss.

However, Grabher was then able to put more pressure on Gauff in service games. After leading 40:15, she took the serve from her right at the beginning of the second set, after returning the break to zero to 1: 1 immediately to 2: 1 again, also to zero. Overall, Gauff has lost serve three times in a row at this point. There was now some hope that Grabher could offer more for her overwhelming opponent who was so convincing that day, even as she found two balls to make 3-1. But after not being able to make any profit from them, like 0:30 in the next return leg at 2:2, Gauff finally played all of her class again. Grabher could no longer make up the service loss to 2:4, and also lost her second duel with the only 19-year-old in a short time after 1:6, 3:6 at the Billie Jean King Cup on April 16 in Delray Beach (USA). USA) on a hard court. “I performed poorly, the serve was decisive,” the best player in Austria was not spared again from self-criticism after her exit, according to the “Austria News Agency – Austria”.

However: “The best two weeks of my career”

But for Graber, two historic weeks are over for now. In the beginning she was the first ÖTV representative since Yvonne Meusberger’s home victory on June 21, 2013 in Bad Gastein to reach the WTA Tour final last week in Morocco’s capital, Rabat. Then she achieved the first success of an Austrian player in a major draw at the French Open since Meisberger at Wimbledon in 2014. “Those were the best two weeks of my career,” she said happily. “I played my first WTA Final and won a Tour Grand Slam for the first time.” You will surely remember these two successes for a long time to come. Grabher would like to take the good vibes with her to her next tournament appearance. The next week’s start is now planned for the WTA 125 clay-court competition in Valencia (Spain), and the Grand Slam Classic from Wimbledon (from July 3) is also on the programme. If Grabher retires early at Wimbledon, she will then continue at the ÖTV State Championships held in Oberbollendorf that same week.

Here are all the results from the French Open in Paris.