return with daughters
Tatjana Maria has a special pressure in Wimbledon
7/3/2023 7:22 am
The most prestigious tennis tournament of the year starts on Monday on the Wimbledon lawn. Also present: Tatjana Maria. The German sensationally reached the semi-finals last year. She wants to build on that – also for her daughters.
Tatjana Maria is about to return to the place of her great success. Wimbledon is also a special place for their children. If Tatjana Maria’s two daughters have their way, Wimbledon should be every day, every week, all year round. Because, yes, because Charlotte (9 years old) and Cecilia (2) “love the childcare at the All England Club’s facility so much, they want to be in there all day”. So from eleven in the morning until it’s no longer possible, it almost sounds as if the girls have to be carried out at the end.
The 35-year-old from Bad Saulgau does indeed play for her children – every round that she advances means for Charlotte and Cecilia: two more days in the Wimbledon daycare center. “That’s the pressure I have every year,” says Maria with a wink, “but last year it worked quite well.” In 2022, the then 34-year-old mother of two sensationally reached the semi-finals.
Preparation “worked well”
And because it worked so well last year, Tatjana Maria approached Wimbledon the same way she did twelve months ago. Again, she played a lot on grass before, there were a total of eleven matches, the last one she lost in Bad Homburg against world number one Iga Swiatek 0:6 in the third set. Everything has “worked well so far,” she says, “hopefully it will work on Tuesday too.” Then she starts in this year’s Wimbledon mission.
Opponent in the first round match is Sorana Cirstea from Romania. You know each other – from the second round last year. Maria won 7: 5 in the third set, “there were so many emotions,” she remembers. It wasn’t the only ones: Maria still has “a lot of pictures in her head” from the previous year. At least one of these pictures is from the quarter-finals, when Maria defeated Jule Niemeier, who had also played a strong tournament up to that point, on court 11. It was there that the two met again on Thursday for a souvenir photo.
Niemeier has long since recovered from the hand injury she sustained at the tournament in Berlin the week before last – “everything is fine,” reports coach Christopher Kas. Niemeier trained three times on Saturday – these days are of course longer for Maria than for others. Well before eleven o’clock she comes to the facility with her daughter Charlotte – for training. The nine-year-old is considered a great talent. “She definitely wants to play Wimbledon at some point,” says mother Tatjana. For the time being, the day-care center at the All England Club is sufficient.