Wimbledon: The tennis world is happy with Tatjana Maria – "One of the nicest on the tour"
Tatjana Maria is in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon , it's the first time she's gotten that far in a Grand Slam tournament - and that at the age of 34. There is joy and admiration among the colleagues.
by Florian Goosmann from Wimbledon
last edit: Jul 04, 2022, 09:36 am
Wimbledon writes the most beautiful stories - and Tatjana Maria's is certainly one of them. Because Maria is enthusiastic: she now has two children, she has returned to the tour twice, about a year after the birth of daughter Cecilia, she is now celebrating her greatest career success with the quarter-finals at the most important tennis tournament in the world.
"I'm sooooo happy for Tatjana Maria," tweeted ex-player and commentator Rennae Stubbs, "she's the nicest person there is. She has a great family. And that was a win with guts." Mama colleague Kim Clijsters was also happy, "Let's go, Mama," she tweeted. And Sabine Lisicki, here in the final in 2013, wrote: "So happy for Tadde, she deserves it so much."
The eventful life of Tatjana Maria
Maria has that, everyone agrees, apart from the rather indelicate loser Jelena Ostapenko . Because Maria, formerly Tatjana Malek, has had an extremely eventful career. In 2008 she almost died after a pulmonary embolism, her father died at the end of the year and after a while Maria fell into a deep hole. In 2012 she met her future husband Charles Edouard Maria, an ex-professional and tennis coach, the two fell in love, married in 2013 and daughter Charlotte was born at the end of the year.
Maria returned, for the first time, she suddenly played the backhand with one hand, in 2017 she made it into the top 50 in the world for the first time, in 2018 she celebrated her first tournament victory at WTA level (at the lawn tournament in Mallorca). Cecilia was born in 2021, Maria had to start all over again after another baby break. And is currently playing the tennis of her life! In February she won the WTA tournament in Bogota, so now the quarter-finals on the most important lawn in the tennis world - more is hardly possible.
Or is it? Maria now meets Jule Niemeier in the German duel on Tuesday, which is also a crazy story - after all, the Dortmund native is playing in the Wimbledon main draw for the first time ever.
By the way, Maria fended off two match points against Jelena Ostapenko on the way to the round of eight. She remained true to her patient slice game despite her opponent's orgies of winners in the meantime. And otherwise: yourself too.
Praise for childcare at Wimbledon
Nothing would change anyway, she said at the press conference, she was standing in the hall at 8.30 a.m. that morning because daughter Charlotte - also extremely ambitious in terms of a possible professional career - had been training there.
It was actually the only thing that was really irritating so far at the 2022 Wimbledon tournament: Because the Maria family usually sits together in the spectator area to cheer on Tatjana, but their two kids have not yet been seen here. Don't they feel like watching mom at the most important tournament in the world?
Maria dissolved. Childcare at Wimbledon is just so great, Charlotte has been talking about it for three years. And she, who is now 8 years old, and Cecilia, the 1 year old, are almost inseparable. In childcare, however, the television is of course switched on.
Should Tatjana Maria's path continue at the surprise tournament in the All England Club in 2022: one can assume that the family will keep their fingers crossed at the latest in the final.
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