Stuttgart - Melbourne

The engine sounds start and the machine starts to roll. I'll review the week again and then we'll take off. Hong Kong is getting smaller and smaller beneath us and Australia is getting closer. 2024 has begun, I've been hitting the yellow ball for over 20 years. As a small child, I saw Wimbledon on television and wanted to play there, in a Grand Slam tournament. From club championships to district tournaments, from tournaments in the south of Germany to all of Europe and at some point even worldwide. Back then, I didn't know what it meant to be a tennis professional or how to set the course for it. I always had this goal in mind, but everything still took on its own dynamic. From youth tournaments to being active during my school years, after graduating from college to the Futures to the Challengers and all of a sudden on the ATP Tour.

2 1/2 years ago I sat on a park bench in Stuttgart and asked myself whether I was wasting my time and life energy. The sporting setbacks since I graduated from university were too deep. I didn't have enough success to show for it. But somehow I still couldn't let go. It wasn't the people I wanted to prove something to, who motivated me, who told me directly or indirectly that tennis wouldn't work anymore. It was no longer the childhood dream of the Wimbledon singles final and this trophy that had started everything. It was the reflection that motivated me again and said you can do better. So we're not giving up on tennis yet, you've invested too much energy for that.

Then the plane shakes and before I sink any further into melancholic thoughts, the pilot says:

Fasten your seatbelts please! Next stop Melbourne!

The Australian Open starts in a week...