With a few souvenirs from the souvenir shop, Tatjana Maria left the scene of her greatest success.
After toasting her Wimbledon fairytale in the evening, the 34-year-old wants to support her Bundesliga team of TC Bredeney on Saturday, at least as a spectator in the fight for the championship. Even at an advanced age, she still has big goals on the court and is not thinking of ending her career for a long time.
Wimbledon semi-final career highlight so far
“These two weeks have been extremely important for me and have shown that we are on the right track and that I can do a lot more,” said the Swabian-born player after her sensational tournament with the semi-final as the highlight of her career so far. “I feel fit. It could be that I play for a very, very long time.” She is now rooting for her good friend and vanquisher Ons Jabeur from Tunisia against Jelena Rybakina from Kazakhstan in the final.
Whether Maria herself will play in the decisive Bundesliga match of the Essen team against TK Blau-Weiss Aachen will be decided at short notice due to a minor injury, said Bredeney’s team manager Torsten Rekasch on Friday. Jule Niemeier, the second big German Wimbledon surprise, will definitely serve. “We are proud to have the players in our squad. You can’t paint a better picture of that,” said Rekasch.
Rittner: “German women’s tennis well positioned “
Until now, no German player had made it to the top class after the generation around three-time Grand Slam tournament winner Angelique Kerber, Sabine Lisicki, Julia Görges and Andrea Petkovic, which also includes Maria. The fact that Niemeier has now reached the quarter-finals for the first time on a big stage at her second Grand Slam tournament is seen by women’s national coach Barbara Rittner as confirmation with an eye to the future.
“I always knew there would be young talent coming up and this was proof of that. We can look forward to the future and calmly observe and support the development of the young players,” Rittner told dpa. “But they simply need more time, just like Jule, to develop.”
Maria also sees this sporting development as not yet complete. For the first time since the birth of her second daughter Cecilia 15 months ago, she will be among the world’s top 100 again – but the big leap is missing because there were no points at Wimbledon due to the ban on Russian and Belarusian professionals. So the tour continues for her at smaller tournaments in Lausanne and Palermo.
Maria’s daughter Charlotte ahead of tennis career?
During the tournament, Maria had also talked about possibly continuing her career until her daughter Charlotte, who is currently eight years old, possibly makes it to the professional circuit. “I have always joked that after a third (child) I might also come back. And maybe I’ll stay on the tour until Charlotte plays. You never know what will happen,” she said.
Whether the German Tennis Federation can also count on the eight-year-old as a young hope is still open. Through Maria’s husband Charles-Edouard, Charlotte also has French citizenship and a US passport. “We live in America, and it will stay that way,” said Maria about her future plans and with regard to Charlotte: “She can decide which country she wants to play for at some point in the future.
