FILE PHOTO: Tennis - Wimbledon - All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain - July 7, 2022 Germany's Tatjana Maria walks off the court after losing her semi final match against Tunisia's Ons Jabeur REUTERS/Toby Melville
LONDON (Reuters) - Germany's Tatjana Maria had just lost the biggest match of her life yet all she could do was heap praise on her conqueror Ons Jabeur -- a friend she described as being "an amazing inspiration for a lot of women on this planet".
Maria's run to the Wimbledon semi-finals has been the feel-good story of the championships as 15 months after giving birth to her second daughter Cecilia, the 103rd-ranked German finally made it to the last four of a Grand Slam at the 49th attempt.
That she came up against her closest friend on the circuit, whom her eldest daughter Charlotte fondly calls "Aunt Ons", was a moment to cherish for both players.
"Ons is an amazing role model," the 34-year-old said after her Tunisian friend became the first Arab to reach a Grand Slam final with a 6-2 3-6 6-1 victory on Thursday.
Even though third seed Jabeur had achieved the biggest win of her career by finally reaching the final of a major, she showed just how much Maria meant to her as she dragged the German back onto the middle of the court and joined in with the crowd to applaud her friend's achievement.
"It was really nice from her that at the end she wanted to celebrate with me even though it was her moment," said Maria, who also shared a loving embrace with Jabeur at the net.
"For her, it's the first time in a Grand Slam final. It was her moment but she wanted to celebrate it with me. That makes it also really special. She's such a great person. She really deserves it. I'm really happy for her, too.
"On the court we knew both that we will go out and do our best, and after we knew that we were still going to be friends ... she's part of our family. She's an amazing person. I'm really happy for her and I hope she can win it."
BIGGEST CHEQUE
There was nothing less amazing about Maria's performance over the past 11 days.
Until this fortnight, the German's best showing at a major was a solitary third-round run at the All England Club in 2015. Of her previous 48 attempts, she did not even progress past qualifying 14 times.
While the German banked the biggest cheque she's ever received - 535,000 pounds ($643,000) - boosting her 16-year career earnings of $3.5 million, the huge jump she could have expected in her ranking will not materialise.
Wimbledon was stripped of awarding any ranking points after it excluded Russian and Belarussian players from this year's tournament in response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, which Russia calls a 'special operation'.
Maria, however, wanted to look on the bright side of what she described as "a crazy adventure with my family.
"Everything will stay the same after Wimbledon because my ranking will not go up (by much). What is already special for me because now I will be the first time top 100 with my two kids," said the German, who was ranked outside the top 300 in January.
"I'm 34 years old with two kids and playing first time in a semi-final at Wimbledon. I can beat good players and I have to believe in myself to keep going.
"People will see that everything is possible, even to keep going, to believe in themselves, to keep going, to fight, to love what they are doing, to enjoy, at the end to enjoy life."
($1 = 0.8318 pounds)
(Reporting by Pritha Sarkar, editing by Ken Ferris)
