While all of the players competing in the US Open qualifying are hoping to move on to becoming top-ranked players, one player is looking to do so for a second time.
Anna-Lena Groenefeld, who reached a career high ranking of No. 14 in 2006, is back competing in the qualifying for the first time in four years, as she looks to rebound from a nightmare 2007 season. She moved one step closer to qualifying for the main draw, easily defeating Regina Kulikova 6-4, 6-2 in a second round match.
The big serves and heavy groundstrokes that were so prevalent in Groenefeld’s game when she reached the 2006 French Open quarterfinals appeared as though they had never left. Attacking the ball early and controlling most of the rallies, Groenefeld jumped out to early leads in both sets as she advanced in just over an hour.
“I didn’t lose serve once today, so that was very good for me,” Groenefeld said. “Because I was able to break her serve once more in the second set, I started to feel very comfortable from that point on.”
The confidence that Groenefeld currently has in her game wasn’t easy to regain after a 2007 season that featured a high-profile breakup with her coach, Rafael Font De Mora. After the break-up, Font De Mora publicly criticized Groenefeld’s weight and physical appearance. He also sat courtside at Groenefeld’s matches whenever possible, offering tactical advice to her opponents.
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“It wasn’t easy for me to play with all of these distractions,” Groenefeld said.
After ending the summer of 2007 with a 6-16 record and with her ranking well outside the top 150, Groenefeld said that she took a self-imposed break from tennis in order to get her career back on track.
“I was playing the whole time, but it was never at one-hundred percent obviously,” Groenefeld said. “There’s no way you can do that unless you’re completely focused.”
After ten months away from the tour, Groenefeld hired a new coach, Dirk Dier, and worked on getting herself back into shape both mentally and physically.
“The first thing he told me was that I had to have fun doing this,” Groenefeld said. “Otherwise, there was no point.”
With a renewed sense of determination, Groenefeld returned to the tour last May on the challenger circuit. She quickly won four challenger titles and reached the finals of a WTA Tour event in Budapest.
Groenefeld said that while she has always believed she could return to the top of women’s tennis, she didn’t expect to be winning tournaments so quickly.
“I couldn’t be any happier with the results so far,” Groenefeld said. “To be winning this many tournaments so far is just amazing.”
Groenefeld said that she credits Dier for not only saving her career, but giving her the balance that her life had been missing.
“He’s been making practice fun and of course is also offering some good tactical advice,” Groenefeld said. “I love the way we work together and hope we can continue this for the rest of my career.”
Dirk Dier
The Journeyman: Hamburg Memories
This week’s Masters Series tournament at the Tennis Club am Rothenbaum in Hamburg brings back some awfully good memories for me. I arrived there in May of 1994 from sunny Roma, ready to compete in the singles qualifying and the main draw of the doubles.
I signed in for the singles on a wet and rainy late Friday afternoon, and went back to the hotel, driven by a very pretty young German driver. Checking the draw out that evening, I found out that I had to play the tough and well-experienced former French Davis Cup player Thierry Champion. We played the qualies at a different club than the main site, and we played in the early afternoon, and I was dismantled rather easily in straight sets by the clay court specialist. (Incidentally, Champion is currently a well respected coach of the young upstart French player Gael Monfils.) To cool off my sorrows, I headed to a local tavern and had a bratwurst and a Heffeweisen beer.
What made Hamburg a tough tournament was the heavy and often wet conditions. At that time of year, Spring is in its very early stages in northern Germany and the weather can be horrendous. When the weather was nice, I always enjoyed my morning runs around the beautiful lake that is close to the tournament hotel.
During this memorable week, I had the pleasure of practicing with Boris Becker at one of the practice courts. We played a few baseline games to eleven, and I was very nervous throughout. I remember waiting for him to come to the courts, and when he arrived, it was like the Pope coming for a visit. He was very amiable, and it was a sheer pleasure.
In the doubles, I signed up with South Africa’s John-Laffnie De Jager. He was an experienced doubles player, and I felt our chances were good. He has gone on to become the South African Davis Cup coach and he runs some great charity events in his homeland. We drew the German team of Dirk Dier and Torben Theine in the first round. We played well, and won 6-2,6-2. Dirk was a funny German guy, who loved the Fantasiche Vier band. I would later play German club tennis with him for TC Mannheim a few years later.
In the next round, we battled against the South African David “Chewy” Adams. He was nicknamed this due to his resemblance to the Star Wars character Chewbacca. He would team up with the Russian Andrei
Olhovskiy, a very stern looking KGB agent-lookalike, who starred on the Russian Davis Cup team. We went down 6-2, 7-6 on one of the back courts at the club. Overall, it was a great week on the tour, and one that I will never forget.
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