Former WTA players light up ITF Masters World Team Championships
A crop of former WTA players are taking to the courts at the 2023 ITF World Tennis Masters Tour 30-50 World Team Championships this week – highlighting players’ desire to represent their countries at all levels of the sport.
Former world No. 55 Alberta Brianti, No. 101 Zuzana Kučová and No. 161 Anne Schaefer are just three of those taking part at the Ali Bey Club in Antalya, Türkiye who know what it takes to compete at the highest level in tennis.
Schaefer, who captains a formidable German team in the women's 30 age group this week, is still active on the ITF World Tennis Tour, having won 21 professional singles titles between 2006 and 2016.
In fact, the 36-year-old was a runner-up in her most recent professional appearance at W15 Heraklion last October.
So why the excitement in competing at amateur level on the world stage in Masters Tennis, then?
“I’m looking forward to representing my country [here], which was always a dream when I was little,” she explained. “Competing [at the World Championships] represents a passion for the sport that I have felt since I started playing tennis almost 30 years ago.”
Enthusiasm for the game is on full display throughout the Ali Bey Club in Antalya, which has hosted multiple World Championships over the years - albeit this being its first staging of the event since 2015 - and Schaefer has been hugely impressed by what she has seen after the first full day of competition.
“It’s so nice to see so many people here who are passionate about tennis, even if they work or have kids,” said Schaefer. “It needs to be a real passion to practice the whole week, after work… and it’s fantastic to see how much fun they all have playing tennis.
“Everybody is here to enjoy tennis. That’s the thing I love to see, because I feel it inside me.”
Schaefer, who has travelled to the event with her five-year-old child, recognises that her professional career is coming to an end and is determined to make the most of every competitive opportunity over the next 12 months.
“I’m still playing a bit, because I’m still enjoying it, but next year [my daughter] will go to school, so it’s the last year when I can travel a bit more,” she admitted.
“It’s a challenge… it’s the first time it’s just the two of us [at a tournament], and I’d like to thank my team members. They watch her while I play.”
Antalya may feel a buoyant relaxed atmosphere, allow for some mother-daughter bonding time and provide something of a holiday, but make no mistake, Schaefer is here to win.
“Today it was good - we beat Sweden and it went better than I expected,” she said. “I haven’t seen all the other teams yet, but we will give our best, we will enjoy every challenge, and we will see.”