Heavy rain flooded the Australian Open. The tournament was largely at a standstill for a time. For a German, the storm came at a particularly bad time.
Christoph Cöln reports from Melbourne
Nothing worked at the Australian Open. When an unexpectedly violent storm hit the area around the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne on Sunday afternoon (local time), the first major tennis tournament of the year almost came to a standstill. Most games had to be canceled and spectators, players and officials fled into the catacombs. Only the games in the covered arenas could be played to the end.
The German world-class player Tatjana Maria was hit particularly hard; she was in a particularly critical phase of her first round game against the American Bernarda Pera. When the score was 6:6 in the first set, the game was interrupted – and could not be continued for the next 6.5 hours. A long period of waiting, which Maria described after the game as follows: “I ate, slept, waited, not much. But of course you go from one sofa to the other so you can move around a bit. And we gave my children food because they had been in child care all day.”
Maria has two children with her husband Charles-Édouard Maria, a former tennis player. Her husband is also her coach and the whole family often accompanies her on the tennis tour, as she said. During this unusually long break, she tried to visualize her game and stay calm. And just took a nap to save energy.
When things finally continued, Maria kept her nerve. She won the tie-break and also survived some critical moments in the second set. The 2022 Wimbledon semi-finalist provoked many mistakes from her opponent with heavily undercut balls and won the match with this tactic after 1:48 hours of play.
At 37, the oldest player in the singles main draw ultimately won her first round match 7:6 (7:3), 6:4. In the second round, Maria will play against either Clara Tauson from Denmark or the Czech Linda Nosková.
When asked about her age at the press conference after the match, the German said: “I don’t feel as old as I am yet.” She wants to continue playing for as long as her body allows. At this year’s Australian Open, her body seems to be in top shape – and the world number 87 also left behind mentally. a strong impression.