Tatjana Maria was not granted a wildcard for the Queen’s Club Championships this year.
Maria won the Queen’s title last year after beating the likes of Amanda Anisimova, Elena Rybakina and Madison Keys with her unique playing style.
However, the former Wimbledon semi-finalist was unable to gain direct entry for her Queen’s title defence this year, with Maria currently the world number 54 just missing out on the cut-off.
Maria was not handed a wildcard for Queen’s this year, as they were given to four British players instead, and therefore was forced to play qualifying instead, much to the frustration of many tennis fans.
Tatjana Maria qualifies for the Queen’s Club Championships after wildcard snub
Maria was the top seed in qualifying at Queen’s this year, but due to poor weather, her first match against British player Lily Miyazaki was postponed by a day.
This meant that if the 38-year-old was to make the main draw of Queen’s this year, then Maria would need to win two matches in one day.
Maria had only won back-to-back matches twice since her Queen’s title victory last year, but she was able to show why she is the defending champion in qualifying.
This started for Maria with a 6-2, 1-6, 6-2 victory over Miyazaki, before she would return to the court just hours later to play against Kamilla Rakhimova.
Maria would beat Rakhimova 6-4, 6-3 to qualify for Queen’s, as she kept her title defence alive by qualifying for the main draw.
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Tatjana Maria’s draw ahead of Queen’s title defence
Maria has now made it into the main draw of Queen’s, but she will not have it easy at all in London.
The German has been placed in the draw to play former world number three Maria Sakkari in the first round.
Sakkari leads their head-to-head 3-1, but Maria won their only previous match on grass at Wimbledon in 2022.
Some of the other threats to Maria in her half of the draw include Rybakina, Victoria Mboko and Leylah Fernandez.
Maria beat four seeds en route to the Queen’s title last year, which included wins over both Rybakina and Fernandez, so she knows she is capable of producing some upsets.
If she loses in the first round of her title defence at Queen’s this year, Maria will fall outside the top 120 for the first time since 2022.
