Suddenly Annelin Bakker played both finals of the Dutch tennis championship in Amstelveen this weekend. Anyone who would have predicted that a year ago would have been called crazy. It was a fitting end to a year that she experienced like a rollercoaster.
About three weeks ago, from Monastir in Tunisia, where she was then playing a professional tournament, she had a conversation with the sports psychologist she occasionally consults. Things threatened to go in the wrong direction again. Nothing dramatic, just a way of thinking that may be realistic, but doesn’t score any points.
‘I have to think about the process, not the result’
“I started thinking again: I’m here for the points, I have to win matches because I’m here for my place in the world rankings, that kind of thing,” says Bakker, “while I just have to think: have fun playing tennis, developing myself, that’s what it’s all about. Thinking about the process and not the result. It also has to do with the fact that I am far away in a hotel, where you can only focus on your tennis. Then you might start to think that way more quickly.”
Bakker (18) tells it a few hours after the final of the National Championships. She lost to Suzan Lamens, number 3 in the Netherlands and number 213 in the WTA world rankings, who won her third consecutive National Championship. The score was 6-3, 6-3. “She hit really well,” Bakker looks back. “She is a good counter player, knows how to play her best tennis and give you difficult balls, without playing with a lot of pressure. And she always has an extra ball back. Of course I always play hard and with a lot of pressure, but also with risk and chance of mistakes. Today I really made too many of those mistakes, and then you can’t beat such a strong opponent.”
Last year she was Dutch youth champion
But Bakker is still dominated by the joy of the final place at the National Championships. Last year around this time she was still very happy that she had become Dutch Under 18 champion, so now she was already in the final of the ‘big’ National Championship. Although without the two best tennis players in the country, Arantxa Rus and Arianne Hartono, but with Lamens and also Jasmijn Gimbrère, the Niebert from 7 e of the country. “Oh, of course that has been the case for years. But that doesn’t make the tournament much less strong.”
Gimbrère was defeated by Bakker in the quarter-finals of the National Championships. For the second time. The first time was on July 12, also in Amstelveen, during the 60,000 dollar tournament there, on the outdoor clay courts of the National Training Center. That match and that tournament are considered her best tournament of this year for Bakker, her first year as a professional tennis player. “Then I was playing so well, I was in a kind of flow.”
Stress fracture caused concern
But just after that tournament, the misery started that made her seriously doubt her future as a tennis player. She was diagnosed with a stress fracture twice, and because it was not clear where those tiny fractures came from, a bone density scan was even made to see whether she might have bones that could not handle the strain of top tennis.
But fortunately the answer was ‘no’: there was actually nothing wrong, she had had two bad lucks. There was nothing wrong with her bone density, she could just pursue her dream of reaching the global top 100. And so Bakker went on tour again, abroad. With the ups and downs that come with it, see Monastir for the down.
‘This has been a good week’
Fortunately, there was now the up of the National Championships. With Lian Tran, the young Harense also reached the final of the women’s doubles. She lost to Isis van den Broek and Rose Marie Nijkamp: 4-6, 2-6. And on Sunday Lamens was too strong. “Of course I’m disappointed that I lost the final, but I’m very happy that I performed like this here,” concluded Bakker, who will play on the professional tour again from February. “And that I could play relaxed again, without putting a lot of pressure on myself. This has been a good week.”
Jesper de Jong became Dutch champion among the men. the former winner of the ITF professional tournament in Haren defeated Gijs Brouwer in the final: 7-6, 6-4.
Visker will play Monastir semi-final on Monday
Tennis player Niels Visker reached the semi-finals in Monastir, Tunisia, but that has yet to be completed. A lot of rain threw a spanner in the works of the ITF tournament in the Tunisian seaside resort. “There was also a very strong wind,” says the 22-year-old professional tennis player from Lageland. “So this week it was mainly a matter of keeping the ball inside the lines and then winning ugly.” On Monday, Visker will play against the American Omni Kumar (ATP-395) in the semi-finals.
Also Sidan é Pontjodikromo reached a semi-final, he played it in Zahra, Kuwait. But the born and bred Groningen resident lost to the Belgian Emilien Demanet: 2-6, 3-6.