It could have turned out very differently…
Moment of shock for tennis professional Elena Karner (19). The talent from Austria competed in the ITF tournament ($15,000 in prize money) in Monastir, Tunisia, this week. But the weather not only made it impossible to play, but even put Karner’s life in danger on Wednesday!
The teenager on the “Krone”: “It had started to rain in the morning, so the games were canceled. And I decided to go to the gym.”
There, however, she was surprised by a violent storm. “I was in the middle of my exercise – and suddenly there was a bang, the entire glass front shattered, the ceiling almost collapsed. All equipment has been catapulted to the back into the last corner – everything is gone there.” A huge gust of wind had swept over Karner’s hotel and had left a trail of devastation.
Karner captured the destruction of the gym in her hotel on video. The shattered window front as well as parts of the facade and splinters lying wildly all over the room above the devices are clearly visible. An absolute mess!
She reported shocked: “At first it felt like a bomb had hit. Thank God I stood at the back – as did the other two people present. Except for a few scratches and a slight cut from the glass splinters, I’m fine – and that’s almost a miracle!” Given the pictures, that’s no exaggeration…
Apparently their accommodation didn’t have much to counter the mega storm. Karner: “I don’t want to say that the hotel is in bad shape. It’s nice, but you can see, especially on the ground, that the hotel seems to be leaking.”
When it was possible to play again on Thursday, Karner (world ranking 1218) lost significantly against her Japanese opponent Kayo Nishimura and had no chance at 2:6, 1:6. No wonder, after this shock experience.