"Tadde" Maria keeps her fingers crossed for her Ons Jabeur: "She has to get it"
Tatjana Maria will keep her fingers crossed for her good friend Ons Jabeur in the Wimbledon final.
by SID
last edit: Jul 08, 2022, 06:19 pm
Tatjana Maria does not yet know exactly where and whether she can see the Wimbledon final between Ons Jabeur and Jelena Rybakina on Saturday. Well, who she keeps her fingers crossed for. "Ons is a really great person," said Maria, whose own final ambitions came to an end with the three-set defeat against Jabeur: "Now she has to get it, she deserves it."
In any case, Tatjana Maria, her husband Charles and their two children Charlotte and Cecilia will no longer be in London. "The Bundesliga is on Saturday and we're playing for the German championship," she said. "Maybe I'll be there." That would be at TC Bredeney in Essen, it's the club for which her quarter-final opponent Jule Niemeier also competes: "Maybe Jule and I will be on the same side of the net again."
From the Center Court in Wimbledon to the provincial stage in Essen-Bredeney - what many may perceive as a culture shock is quite normal for Maria. "I'm going back to normal life now," she assured: "I'm very down-to-earth, my family, my children are the most important thing for me, and nothing will change that."
Ons Jabeur wants to open doors
In any case, Ons Jabeur has nothing but praise for her close friend. "I hope she keeps it up," she said, "it didn't feel like I was playing against world No. 103. Tadde is an inspiration, it's incredible what she's done over the past few years."
But Jabeur can also be very proud of what she has achieved in recent years. When she won the WTA tournament in Birmingham in June last year, she was the first player in the Arab world to do so. A little later the premiere in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon, in October then the first in the top 10 in the world rankings.
She is now number two in the ranking and the first African woman in a Grand Slam final. "I don't just play for myself," said the 27-year-old: "I play for my country, for the Arab world, for the African continent." She wants to open doors, be a pioneer: "I'm a proud Tunisian woman, I want to pass this message on to all young girls and women in my homeland."
Rybakina: "I'm a tennis player"
Jelena Rybakina also has a message, and after her semi-final win over Simona Halep (Romania), she tried everything to convey it as credibly as possible. After all, much of Wimbledon still revolves around the exclusion of the Russians and Belarusians because of the attack on Ukraine.
She has been playing for Kazakhstan for a long time, she competed for Kazakhstan at the Olympics, she has nothing in common with Russia, said the 23-year-old, who was born in Moscow. And deep down in her heart, doesn't she perhaps feel like a Russian after all? "What's that supposed to mean? I'm a tennis player." No more questions.