What is it, that makes a human struggle eight hours a day in practice and cross borders that you would normally avoid? What makes an athlete with all her strengths and weaknesses confront the public just to be judged mercilessly when success is missing? Is it the money, the fame or the recognition? A little bit of everything and nothing of that really.
If you grow up playing tennis from your childhood and you compete with your opponents eyeball to eyeball all the time, these concomitants fade. The intense emotions you experience within a match cannot be compared to anything else or be found in another job. Me being bubbly and sensitive anyway, I undergo the whole spectrum from anger, grief, disappointment and distress to joy, euphoria, pride and happiness throughout a match. Some people jump out of planes, some go skiing or drive a car real fast, others change their partners and take drugs to live in extremes. I take the rollercoaster of feelings every time I go out on the court and I am extremely fortunate to be able to make a living out this way.
The competition, the pursuit of almost impossible perfection, the often underestimated mental challenge, the release after you convert a match ball – all that brings a certain something to my life, that makes it interesting, diverse and worth living.
My Coaches
My first and livelong coach is my father Zoran. He taught me how to play tennis, he passed me the passion for this sport and imparted all the technical subtleties onto me. He is always composed and stable, regardless the fact that as a youngster I often used lose it, chopped rackets and absolutely misbehaved. Many people demanded he should upbraid me and this would never take a good ending, because as a father he is to forbearing with me. But his patience paid off. I learned my lesson, I don’t lose my temper anymore I have become very calm. His coaching philosophy always focused on long-term nature results and lost matches never were an object of debate after we concluded score evaluation.
My father also works as club coach at TEC Darmstadt, therefore I am now part of the TOP-SHOP-Team in Leimen under the direction of Daniel Merkert. This is the place where I prepare for the season and am always welcome to join in for a training-session inbetween tournaments. With a high standard of working moral, being rigid against himself and positive thinking Daniel did not only help me to develope in playing, he also infused me a new perspective of thinking positive. This becomes noticeable in my way of dealing with loses - I learn from them and mark them of more readily.
In the area of condition-training I am supported by Mike Diehl and Stanislav Pinar. Both of them in their distinct way brought my fitness back to scratch after my serious knee injury (cruciate ligament rupture). This unbeatable combination has not only affected my increased swiftness and condition. The mental aspect is perceivable as well - I can be assured, that there are only few women in tennis who are fitter than me.