About me or…
Who is Hendrik Jebens?
Without my very own (tennis) story, I wouldn't be where I am today. This is my way onto the Center Court.
Hi, first of all I'm happy that you found my website and gave me a moment of your precious time and attention. Ironically, this website isn't just about me, but more importantly about you!
As an aspiring tennis player, I have spent years researching and trying to learn from the most successful athletes and people in order to achieve my own goals. On my ongoing path to the top level in tennis, I have experienced many sporting crises and setbacks, which in retrospect were valuable lessons.
With the content on this website, I will help you achieve your sporting goals faster. You will always have to walk the path yourself, every inch of it, but I can show you one or two shortcuts.
I look forward to hearing about your story and helping you on your journey. So that we can get to know each other better, I would like to tell you who I am and how I got into tennis.
I was born on August 8.8.1995, in Stuttgart, it took a few years, but when I was 4 years old I held a tennis racket in my hand for the first time. And I didn't like it at first, after the trial course it was over straight away. Luckily, my parents got me into tennis again three years later. I've stuck with it ever since, and that's only because of a few drastic experiences. What drove me to play more tennis back then was a trophy.I reached 3rd place in the club championships and there was a trophy, after which I wanted more. My parents signed me up for local tournaments; I was a little younger than my opponents at the time and had to learn to lose first.
After a few tournaments, I competed against people of the same age and was able to achieve my first victories and trophies. I was definitely talented and successful at the local level. From year to year the tournament radius grew larger, fromlocal to regional, then national and finally Europe and worldwide. Compared to many of my current competitors, I was never number 1 in Germany (home country) in the youth sector, I wasn't even in the top 20 in my age group. As already mentioned, after my successes in the local area, I first had to learn that there are many better players.When I was 14, I had a series of defeats and once stood in front of the draw at a Tennis Europe tournament (European youth tournament) and had to overhear the following conversation from two opponents of the same age. “Look, the draw is out, I have a bye. “What’s your draw?” one boy asked the slightly taller boy at the time. He replied, “Look, I have a bye too,” whereupon the smaller one asked him, “You don’t have a bye, you’re playing against Hendrik Jebens", the taller one said dryly, "It's the same as a bye." Then they both laughed and moved on.
It didn't leave me unscathed at the time, I lost the match straight away and a month later I was devastated after another defeat and had mentally finished with tennis and wanted to quit.
However, after a few days off, I wanted to get back on the court and was determined to get better. Until 17 I played mainly at the national level junior and men's tournaments, while I also completed my high school diploma. Occasionally I played an international professional tournament, but was always clearly inferior to professional players or top-ranked players of the same age in qualifying. When I was 18, I decided to study business administration instead of becoming a professional tennis player. I went to San Diego State University in the fall of 2013 and played college tennis there and got my bachelor's degree. After 2 months in San Diego, my coach told me that I would never have a place on the team if I continued playing like this. That was the second click in my young tennis career. I wanted to prove that I was a good player, especially I wanted to prove to myself that I was good enough. (As of today, I am one of the best players to ever play at this university). The training conditions in San Diego were great and I started to do a little more and work harder. I was able to improve enormously fromsemester to semester, and in my third year of college at the age of 20, I was able to enter the tennis world rankings for the first time.
In May 2017, after 4 years of college, I earned my business degree and have been playing Tennis professionaly ever since.
In the beginning I had bad luck with injuries. In the summer of 2017; plantar fasciitis limited me enormously for over a year. In 2018 I had shoulder problems and I couldn't really make any progress. In the USA I was still heavily hyped and received a lot of confirmation as an athlete while attending university, but in Germany things were quite different. I guess I was a bit attracted to it at the time, but I had to constantly listen to what I was going to do and that I was wasting my time with the illusion of becoming a professional tennis player. In 2019 I was able to reach my first doubles finals and win my first professional title. I also had success in singles towards the end of the year, with various victories against players between 400 and 500 in the singles world rankings. I was on the up and building momentum, then came 2020 and the coronavirus pandemic. In terms of sport, it was a setback for me, no tournaments or match practice, so when tournament operations resumed I couldn't build on my previous performances. Time passed and at the end of 2020, at the age of 25, I had very little sporting success to show for. I also had doubts and started working outside of tennis. Thanks to my business degree, I was able to work in marketing and sales for a start-up and thus do something for my resume and wallet. As number 1000 in the world, I had very little to success to show for already being a pro for 3 years. I gave myself the 2021 season as an ultimatum, clear successes and ranking position at the end of the year or I will end my career. The season was also bad, but I wanted to keep my promise to myself and finish the year. In the summer of 2021 I was able to celebrate the Hessen championship with my club TC Bad Vilbel and then win the double at the 25K tournament in Überlingen. Nevertheless, at this point I hadalready created my CV and sent applications to various companies.
At the age of 26, I was ready to turn my back on tennis. But everything turned out differently, I picked up a lot of momentum in doubles. Was able to win another tournament and reach another final. Then, with a bit of luck, I got into 2 ATP Challenger tournaments at the end of the year and was able to reach the semi-finals of the Challenger in Forli, Italy, at the last tournament of the year. My greatest success to date. Suddenly, 2 months after I sent out the first job applications, I celebrated success again and decided to concentrate fully on doubles. At the beginning of 2022 I reached a final on the Challenger Tour, suddenly I was playing on large center courts, signing autographs and winning against people I only knew from TV.
That was a very compact summary of my tennis career to date, in a way it's just starting now. Just like between you and me, I hope you can now get a better picture of me and understand why I want to pass on my knowledge. Looking back, I could have achieved many things faster if I had had the knowledge I have today back then. The Blog articles, Videos and e‑books on my website are structured so that you can benefit from them as quickly as possible.
