US Open: Tatjana Maria: “Travelling alone would be nothing more for me”

Mama Serena dominates the headlines about life as a tennis player with child. Tatjana Maria has been exemplifying this for a long time.

By Jörg Allmeroth from New York

The daily problems of a young mother have been to study extensively on all American sports pages in the last days. Serena Williams is not exactly concerned about restraint when it comes to Mama Serena Williams and her joys and sorrows: The little sleep, the worries and doubts whether the almost one-year-old daughter Olympia is given enough time, her own physical problems, but then also again and again pure happiness together. Even an extremely elaborately produced advertising clip with Williams can be admired in the TV networks; it deals with the topic of whether one could call Williams’ return after pregnancy and birth a “comeback”. Williams himself says: “It’s not a comeback. It’s part of who I am.”

Almost forgotten in the great Williams turbulence and headline thunderstorm that there are other mothers on the tennis tour who are as loving as they are stressed. Victoria Azarenka, for example. Or Mandy Minella from Luxembourg. Or Patty Schnyder, the Swiss. But also and above all Tatjana Maria, the German national player. Maria didn’t make the headlines, although she too could have told a lot about family adventures and entanglements with her four-year-old daughter Charlotte, about the complicated organization of the professional life on the tour when you’re no longer just on the road as a lone fighter. Mary did not complain, did not complain – and certainly did not regret herself. On the contrary: “Traveling is only fun with the family. To be alone in hotels, to spend the days alone at tournaments. That would be nothing for me,” says the Bad Saulgauerin, who now lives in sunny Florida.

Not at all amazing, but true in any case: Since Maria has been in the nomad business with her little family, with Charlotte and husband Charles Edouard, she has become a little bit stronger from year to year. In 2018, the 31-year-old (70th in the world ranking) will even experience very special and emotional moments: At the Mallorca Open in June she finally won her first tournament after all the changeful years of her career. This was followed by a spectacular first-round win in Wimbledon against Ukrainian co-favourite Elina Svitolina – and even now, in New York, she managed an unexpected 6-3, 6-3 opening coup against the former second in the world rankings, Agnieszka Radwanska from Poland. “I can only marvel at Tatjana again and again,” says DTB women’s head Barbara Rittner, “she still has so much bite, energy and power. Second round opponent in New York, curious enough, is now Svitolina again.

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Rittner, but also others in the association, can still well remember the unnoticed early days of the German Fräulein miracle – almost a decade and a half ago now. All the stars and starlets of the later successful epoch were gathered, Kerber, Petkovic, Görges. But also Maria, who at that time was still called Malek. She was considered the most talented of all, the next world star. But then fate struck, a life-threatening pulmonary embolism threw her off course for several seasons, and the young woman also had to cope with the early death of her beloved father Heinrich. “I had already lost faith that I could still do something in tennis.”

But then this dark story got another, a good twist, it was about the “power of love,” as Mary herself says, “about the happiness I found. Luck was first alone husband Charles, a charming French tennis instructor. And later also daughter Charlotte, the family Darling. “I was able to fight my way into life first and then back to the top of the world,” says Maria, “and I no longer regretted the opportunities I once missed. And what she didn’t do either was a lot of fuss about her role as a tennis mother, she approached the tasks and tests quite calmly with her patented character and even rejoiced “that you could basically expect the unexpected every day”. Without the help of both families, the Maleks and the Marias, it would not have been possible either, often the grandmothers and grandfathers travelled along, looked after the toddler during training times and matches.

Maria is not only an extraordinary mother in the industry, but also a stylist on the courts. Again and again opponents despair at the variable way of playing of the native Swabian, at her tricky cut balls and other feints and finesses. The 31-year-old slows down the game, decelerates it – where all around only merciless power and high speed reign. “I do my thing consistently,” says Mother Mary.