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Andrea Petković in 2018 with her »Petko Dance«
Photo:
Matthias Hauer / GEPA pictures / IMAGO
When is the right time to resign?
This question occupies many athletes, the answers can be very different.
It's no different with Andrea Petković.
The tennis player has been thinking about the end of her career for more than two years.
Now the time has come.
The US Open, which starts this Monday in her adopted home of New York, offers Petković the right setting to say goodbye as a professional athlete.
When such a resignation is certain, many more questions follow: What do I want to do next?
Am I staying with tennis?
Or do I go completely different ways?
Do I concentrate on private things, or do I quickly find another professional fulfillment?
One would think that someone like Andrea Petković, who has worked as a presenter, writer and columnist alongside her tennis career, would easily find answers to such questions.
So what comes after day X, which can already be real on Tuesday?
Because Petković is going against Olympic champion Belinda Bencic as an outsider in her first round match at the last Grand Slam tournament of the year.
"First depression," Petković said a few weeks ago in a ZDF Neo program with Tommi Schmitt when she was asked what would happen after the end of her career.
“Not in the clinical sense.
But when the whole purpose of your life is gone by the age of 34, 35, what else is there to come but a hole?”
Petković and the Golden Generation
Petkovic is 34 years old.
She has won seven WTA tournaments in her career.
In the world rankings, her highest position was ninth in 2011, she is currently ranked 104th. Petković reached the semi-finals of the 2014 French Open, which was her best result in the four major tournaments.
According to the WTA, she has won almost nine million euros in prize money.
These are the numbers of a career with many ups and downs, with injuries and long breaks, with significant victories and crushing defeats - shaped by a great love of tennis.
In Germany, Petković has always been taller than her seven tournament victories would suggest.
There are many reasons for this.
First and foremost, she was part of a so-called golden generation in the post-Steffi Graf era.
Ever since Graf and Boris Becker made tennis a favorite sport in Germany apart from football, there has been a longing for new stars.
A longing for diving lawn players or grueling slice players who play for maximum success in hour-long Grand Slam matches.
The Golden Generation includes or included Angelique Kerber, Julia Görges, Sabine Lisicki and Anna-Lena Grönefeld, who was particularly successful in doubles.
And of course Petkovic.
One of this quintet alone would have been overwhelmed with the role of German tennis face - despite Kerber's three Grand Slam titles.
Together it was possible.
One of the five players was at least in the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam tournament 21 times.
This is how a generation becomes golden.
Work, struggle, will to win
In this group, Petković fell into the role of an often cheerful friend with an exceptional work and training ethic.
Anyone who talks to national tennis coach Barbara Rittner about the biggest difference to the players who are now moving up will usually hear the following sentence: Petković has subordinated everything to her sport.
In her best professional years (2010 to 2015), Petković was therefore able to compensate for the fact that she was not one of the most talented players.
For her, tennis always had a lot to do with work, with fighting and with the will to win.
Since Petković also has a talent as an entertainer, she was also known to a wider public.
Andrea Petković danced to the top of the world, here at the tournament in Key Biscayne in 2011
Photo:
HANS DERYK/ REUTERS
The Petko Dance, a dance routine on the court after successful games, was her trademark in the meantime.
A few days ago, she indicated the end of her career with a video on Instagram with the hashtag #thelastdance.
The all-rounder would like to play to 50
With Petković, however, it has long been clear that she is much more than a tennis obsessive who knows how to stage herself.
Petković is a multi-talent.
In 2020 her first book »Between Glory and Honor Lies the Night«, in which she builds a bridge between tennis and life in 18 stories.
Petković is part of the team of moderators of the sports report on ZDF.
She founded a book club, wrote for "Die Zeit" and for SPIEGEL and had a column in the magazine of the "Süddeutsche Zeitung".
Petković finds stability in literature, although she describes writing as the second loneliest activity – after tennis.
In her column, she formulated many clever thoughts about loneliness, about doubts about one's own body, about identity or about superheroes.
You should therefore be prepared for the time afterwards.
Or not.
Petković, who would like to play tennis "until I'm 50," as she told Schmitt, finds it difficult to let go.
The US Open may not be her last tournament after all.
"I'm still leaving the option open to add a tournament in Europe that's a bit closer to my family and friends," Petković told the ARD sports show on Sunday.
Role model Petkovic
But what does the resignation mean for German tennis?
Görges has been retired for two years.
Kerber is expecting her first child and wants to return to the court next year.
Lisicki is struggling with the consequences of numerous injuries and is currently ranked 451 in the world. Now the generational change that has been promised for years is finally here.
Petković has taken on a kind of mentoring role for young German players in recent years, especially for Jule Niemeier, who is most likely to jump into the top 50 in the world rankings.
"In terms of play, she is an absolute top 20 player for me," Petković said about Niemeier on the sidelines of Wimbledon.
"She knows that, I tell her that seven or eight times a day."
When Niemeier gave an interview to SPIEGEL at the WTA tournament in Hamburg a few weeks ago, Petković happened to walk into the room and celebrated the 23-year-old talent.
"Jule, Jule, Niemeier, Niemeier, best woman, lady of honour," Petković sang - and seconds later he was gone again.
Niemeier was briefly thrown off course by the performance, and a little later she raved about Petković as a role model.
It would be desirable if Petković stayed with tennis, either as a coach or as a consultant.
That may not be likely - but you will hear a lot from Andrea Petković.