Seen from the outside, the life of a tennis star seems downright luxurious. You jet through the world, get to know New York, Melbourne, Paris and other beautiful cities, are picked up from the airport in a luxury car, driven to the five-star hotel and then on to the tennis court, warmly welcomed by the tournament organizers and celebrated by the fans on Center Court.
In your free time you can go to the zoo, the museum or go shopping, and in the evening you look for a fancy restaurant where you can feast with the trainer and friends, whatever the prize money will give you. Then it’s off to bed, sleep ten, twelve hours, play tennis again the next day. Splendid!
Travel becomes a strain
The nomadic life of a tennis pro can also be quite an impertinence. Let’s take the recent case of Tatjana Maria, who almost breathlessly rushed through the night like Helene Fischer until a new day of tennis awoke. Because the currently best German player successfully fought at the WTA tournament in Gaiba, Italy last week and fought back in the final against the American Ashley Krueger for three sets and two hours, the following trip turned out to be a strain.
On Sunday at 7 p.m. Maria’s final was over, after which she had to do the usual chores, grooming her body, taking care of her two daughters and putting them to bed and lying down a bit herself. On Monday morning she got up at six o’clock, rushed an hour to Bologna airport to catch the flight to Frankfurt so that she could be ready again in the late afternoon for the first round match at the Bad Homburg Open. Terrible!
In general, she is a fighter, especially on grass: Photo: dpa
For what she had been through, Tatjana Maria looked surprisingly relaxed during the interview late Monday evening at half past ten, when Bad Homburg was long since in the dark. In doing so, she had not only demanded a lot from herself over 1:52 hours of play, but also from her famous opponent, the world number one Iga Swiatek.
With strong serves, occasional net attacks and, above all, her dreaded undercut balls that landed just before or on the baseline, Maria put her 13-year-old opponent in trouble for a set. But in the end the power of the Pole prevailed, Maria had to admit defeat 7:5, 2:6, 0:6. The tennis day of the Germans, who will be 36 years old in six weeks, did not end until 9:14 p.m. The first round game shouldn’t have lasted any longer, it was so dark in the Kurpark. “It was difficult for me to see in the third set.” Although Maria had asked the referee about a postponement to the next day, she was rebuffed.
The day had become a bit long even for the mostly relaxed Tatjana Maria: Photo: dpa
In general, the professional association WTA was relentless towards Tatjana Maria. Because the world number one Swiatek had to start the Bad Homburg Open on Monday evening, her German opponent had to play for better or worse – travel stress or not and although she found it difficult “to be at 100 percent”: “I didn’t really agree with the game schedule. But I’m proud of myself that I went on the pitch and fought to the last point, also for the spectators in Germany. Other players who were in the same situation pulled out of the tournament.” Maria called on the WTA to reschedule matches under such circumstances, or at least to communicate better: “I think the WTA should help us there.”
“We are all relaxed”
Normally, the Bad Saulgauer resident, who lives in West Palm Beach/Florida with her husband Charles Maria and their two daughters Charlotte and Cecilia, doesn’t mind traveling. On the contrary, she even enjoys tinkering around with bag and baggage and can’t imagine “anything nicer”. Not everything always runs smoothly, “but we are all relaxed,” as she revealed.
The next trip is imminent. How could it be otherwise at this time, it leads to London. For the thirteenth time Tatjana Maria will take part in the Wimbledon tournament, which starts on Monday. At least since last year, when she surprisingly advanced to the semi-finals, the German has had a very special relationship with the grass classic. “I’m really looking forward to coming back to Wimbledon and I’m not putting myself under pressure.”
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In general, the Maria tennis family enjoys the short grass season as much and as much as possible. While colleagues like Iga Swiatek, who meets the Swiss qualifier Jil Teichmann in Bad Homburg this Wednesday, do not appear on the green surface more often than necessary, Wimbledon will be Maria’s fifth grass tournament in five weeks. The hatz began with the smaller ITF competition at Surbiton near London, where they reached the quarter-finals, followed by Nottingham, where they were eliminated in the second round, Gaiba and Bad Homburg. “When I play on grass, I try to take everything with me,” said Maria, “it will stay that way in the years to come.”
