Julia Thiem: "Miss Bundesliga" bites your teeth

Julia Thiem was one of the best tennis players in the district - but she never wanted to become a professional.

The number 62 of our top 100 athletes.

Taufkirchen / Erding - Julia Thiem is currently feeling like in the hamster wheel that never wants to stand still.

She is chased from left to right on Ismaninger Center Court.

Your opponent Stephanie Wagner mercilessly distributes the tennis balls over the court, but Thiem does not give up, bites his teeth, sends every ball back.

It is an "eternally long rally", she remembers that hot day in June 2017. And Thiem, then 26, will win it.

Because Wagner fails.

Bathed in sweat, Thiem takes the lead 6: 5 in the decisive third set in the semi-finals of the Bavarian championship.

At the end of the four-hour marathon match, she could not take the seventh counter to reach the finals.

"I can fight really well, that has always set me apart," said the now 30-year-old, who now bears the surname Meigel after her wedding, looking back on her remarkable career.

In the following, however, we want to continue to call her Thiem - under this name she has finally taught her opponents to fear over the years.

So also in 2017 of her final opponent Isabella Pfennig.

Everyone is expecting a 50:50 proposition.

But the Taufkirchenerin in the service of the second division club TC Grün-Weiß Luitpoldpark Munich - probably hardened by her marathon success - knows no mercy.

6: 3, 6: 2.

Bavarian champion.

Thiems greatest success of her career to date.

It is not foreseeable for a long time that it would come to that.

Thiem did her first tennis taster course at TC Taufkirchen at the age of five, but she also practiced athletics, handball and even ice hockey.

In addition, she played the flute for almost ten years.

Florian Kainz is the one who will permanently direct her focus towards tennis.

"He was one of my first coaches and recognized my potential early on," says Thiem about Kainz, who is still an important companion today.

But more on that later.

Kainz gently encourages the young woman from Taufkirchen.

Patience is required.

"I actually only realized my potential late and played tennis for fun for a long time," says Thiem.

“Actually relatively late” she was accepted into the Upper Bavaria squad at the age of about twelve.

She started training at the base when she was 13. As a teenager, she admits that she is “not particularly successful”.

Her career really picks up momentum, almost parallel to the final spurt at school.

After working in Taufkirchen, Waldkraiburg and Garching, she switched to Luitpoldpark in 2007 - or "Lupo", as she calls the Munich club in its short form.

She graduated from high school in Dorfen in 2009.

Her sponsor Kainz initiated the move to Lupo.

At a world ranking tournament that he organizes, Thiem previously made a name for himself.

It doesn't take long and Lupo is promoted from the regional league to the lower house of the Bundesliga.

Thiem will serve in the second division for a total of nine years and will always be an integral part of the team, whose face changes regularly.

Lots of players come and go.

Thiem stays.

“I was always there,” she says with a smile.

She had her strongest year in 2011, when she succeeded in winning all the individual games of the season.

That's why they call their teammates "Miss Bundesliga" internally.

For the upper house, the first division, it will never be enough.

"Lupo is very careful to play with the locals," says Thiem.

The club accepts that it has to regularly play against relegation.

In 2013 it actually went down to the regional league, followed by an immediate rise.

Her strongest years were in her mid-twenties, in 2016 and 2017. In the German rankings, the Taufkirchenerin, who looks dogged on the pitch because she shows so much fighting spirit, makes it to 28th place in the WTA world rankings at 890th place. Her greatest success is the 2017 Bayern title. But, as she says, “the best experience” for her is the bronze medal at the student world championships in Lille, France, that same year.

Thiem still raves about the “great atmosphere” in the team.

That must have been a special experience, after all, Thiem has collected many titles in her career.

A couple of times she becomes Upper Bavarian champion both in the youth and in the active area, in the state capital she also secures the city title.

It goes without saying that all of these successes cannot come without support. An important pillar in Thiem's ​​sporting life is not only Kainz's supporter, but also her parents Maria and Konrad.

“They supported me in everything and made everything possible for me - I am infinitely grateful to them for that.

My mom in particular drove me to every training session, game or tournament, ”says Thiem.

Whether in Waldkraiburg, Garching or Munich.

Especially in her time in the state capital, the whole thing takes on such professional proportions that Thiem is on the square almost every day.

But the parents drive them everywhere.

Early in the morning, but also late at night.

“Once we got stuck at night because of drifting snow,” Thiem remembers with a smile.

Her parents - neither of them tennis players, by the way - would never have put pressure on her.

But neither yourself.

"I never had the dream of playing Grand Slams," she emphasizes when asked.

To play good games in the 2nd division, that has always been her goal.

"For me, education has always been the basis of my life," says Thiem, who has her first state examination for primary school teaching in her pocket.

Your doctoral thesis on the subject of “Competence Profiles of Tennis Trainers” is on the home straight.

Her companion Florian Kainz, who is meanwhile managing director of the University of Applied Management in Ismaning, supports her.

A man she has met again and again over the years - although initially of a more distant nature for a long time - is her current husband Marc Meigel.

“We met at a prize money tournament in Schliersee,” Thiem looks back.

The two are, however, quite different, she only sees the Benediktbeurer at sporting events over the years.

“We respected each other, but nothing more.” Meigel Thiem even trained for three or four years at the Oberschleißheim tennis academy.

But still nothing happens, the two are each in different relationships.

When that is no longer the case, it does spark.

"But don't ask how!" Says Thiem with a laugh.

The family that lives in Erding has been three for a good year and a half.

Son Max gives his parents a lot of joy.

The trio will soon be moving to their own four walls in Langengeisling.

Thiem emphasizes that Max is an absolute dream child.

In other words: the sporting career has to be far behind, and she gladly accepts that.

In 2019, Thiem is moving from second division Munich to TC Ismaning, where her husband Marc, fittingly, runs a tennis school.

After all, the TCI plays Bayernliga, i.e. in the fourth-highest division.

By the way, Thiem also works for Wörgl in Austria and Merano in South Tyrol.

Despite having a child, she continues to do sports every day.

She does a lot of fitness, goes running or - of course - plays tennis.

Your husband will then take care of the little one.

Thiem played professionally for Lupo Munich.

The fact that it was never enough to become a tennis star who rakes in the money is not tragic for Thiem.

As already said: That was never her goal.

And anyway: "My character is not enough for a fully professional life," says Thiem.

The many trips that she would then have to make would not fit in with her attachment to home.

Meanwhile, her focus is on other areas anyway - the family, but also her job.

Thiem either wants to do a clerkship or she lectures at a university.

She can imagine that too.

In conclusion, only one question remains to be answered: Who is the better tennis player - Julia or her husband Marc?

“He was more successful than me,” laughs Julia Thiem or Meigel.

In the U16 he was even fifth in the European rankings.

And in 2008 he was ranked 477th in the ATP world rankings for adults.

Incidentally, as his wife already reveals, Marc Meigel will be offering tennis training at SpVgg Altenerding from the summer.