Interviewing the no 573 of the WTA-ranking is usually a fairly fruitless task. But somehow i was full of enthusiasm as i made my way to the streets of a south german town named Bamberg to meet Irina Delitz at the tennisclub she practises at. I have seen her playing once before, we had a few very nice and funny phonecalls, and as i phoned her yesterday evening, asking for  that interview, she accepted at once, and we agreed that i will watch her  training session in the afternoon, too.

I arrived at that tennisclub about 5 minutes before her, and waited at the car park for her to arrive. It might be unprofessional of me to say it, but the first thing i noticed about Irina Delitz as she arrived was her incredible beauty. With shimmering eyes, black hair, and a body much slimmer than the typical modern WTA-amazons she gives off an aura more photo-model than sports person.

The whole thing changes as she starts to talk. Now she is just a very relaxed, down to earth girl from the next door, who likes to laugh a lot, even opened the door for me to her club and introduced me to everyone there

"You had a match yesterday with your local team, didnt you?" I decided to ask her as we sat on a bench next to her court as she waited for her coach and changed her trainies.

"Unfortunately i lost, but it was a good match. My opponent was ranked about 250 and i had 2 break points against her being 4-3 up in the third set, but she played two excellent balls, hold, and i kind of lost my concentration (and the match) after that. But actually i did not play to bad, so i cant really be angry about the loss".

We chatted a bit more about this and that and i spent the next 1 1/2 hours sitting in the shade and watching her practise session, which made me discover the third face of Irina. Now she turned up to be a determined fighter. During the complete 90 minutes she looked very concentrated, very eager and profed me that i was right with my suspection as i called her for the first time, and asked for an interview for tennisrulz: She definately  has the talent and the willpower to reach the top!

The complete session looked very professional and very organized. She was  never complaining as her coach shouted "you can do better than that! try  harder!", never asking for a rest though it was boiling hot, and as they sat  down next to me in the shade as they took some breaks, she even found some  breath to answer the hints that stupid journalist thought he had spotted.

"You know, i was injured, just very recently. My boneskin was inflamed on my  leg and i could not do any proper training.... no runnings, no movements...  just hitting.... thats why i have problems now to coordinate my hits, if i  have to run to the corners" hmmm, i did not know about her injury and really  got to do a better research the next time, but at least i was not to wrong  with my analysis, i thought as she was back on court, sweating, running,  hitting, following the advices of her coach and even hitting one or two  extra balls after he called for another break.

"I basically spend 7 days a week on court" she answeres my next question.  "Usually i get up at 7 and we start working on my condition at 8. Later we  practice on court, have lunch for noon, and another session in the afternoon. I really am a professional tennis player, and work as hard now, as the top players" she explains and my looks went up towards the boiling sun which she was  completely ignoring, and i wasn`t sure how many top-players would have  trained under such conditions......

"Working on her condition is the hardest thing to do" her coach Stephan Medem, a former ATP-player, jumps into the conversation, as Irina unsucessfully tried  to dry her body with only one towel, though she needed about 5 of them  "but  it`s just absolutely necessary. You just cant improve your game when your body  isnt fit.  But its not just running through the woods. Its also working on tennis-specific movements. Its very likely to get boring as you just have to do the same shit every time, and all you can do as a coach is to wrap it up in different ways, though the  result have to stay the same all the time."

They went back on court working on her serve, which is actually pretty powerful  and again i watched a good mixture of excellent advices, funny bits and Irina  getting soacking wet again.

After she had taken her shower we went to an italian restaurant to......  well... actually we went there for a dinner, and to have an interview, but  as we both were not hungry in that boiling heat we just ordered drinks, and  suddenly i could not think about one single decent question as she asked me "so  what do you want to know? You are here for an interview, arent you?"

My suggestion to chat about tennis in general and get to know eachother a little bit,  was probably not one the very best ideas of my life, as it earned me kind of a "are-you-sure-what-you-are-doing?" look, but she was to gentle to say it.

She told me about her private life, her friendships to other players, her family and the fact the she has nothing to do with Russia at all, though she has a russian name  ("there was a russian figure-skater named Irina and my mom just liked her name")  whilst I always tried to ask her questions in between my stories about tennisrulz  which has started as a little fan-site of a 16 year old yougoslavian tennis player  named Jelena Dokic and has become the world-wide leading tennis-magazine on  the internet in such a short while. Its great journalists Glyn James, Todd Spiker,  John Mahony etc... Our boss Pierre Cantin and other sites we are responsible for,  like www.myskina.com and www.andrea-petkovic.com. Always trying to make sure  my questions dont sound to much like those typical interview questions.

"Your coach told me, you were thinking about quitting tennis when you were
17...how comes?"
".... you know, i started at age 5 because of my brother was playing, too, and  everybody told me and my parents i am so talented. And i always had success. I won the bavarian U14 champoinships, was the bavarian no1 at that age, did well at the german U14 champs, was playing players like Justine Henin when i was 16, who was better than me at that time, but not that much, you know....  and then... as other players quit school and became professionals, they became so good... and i thought i can never match up with them. I was just stuck at a  certain level, and did not see a way how i should improve and so i thought about  to quit. It only changed at i met my recent coach Stephan. I guess all the coaches I had before were not really good, but he told me everything. He was a very  good player himself, and knows a lot about tennis. Whenever i have a  question, he knows the right answer, and he convinced me that I have the  potential to make it into the top 100"

"Top100 sounds great, but a bit unrealistic for a player who has turned 20
last month, dont you think so?"
"no, not at all. you know, i never played professional tennis until last  year. I never tried before. If i would have tried for like 5 years now, not  not got further than 500 you would be right, but thats not my case. I guess you can stay on top for about 7 maybe 8 years and it doesnt matter if you are on top from age 22 till 30 or from age 14 to 21...."

"Talking about Martina Hingis?"
"Yeah, but i dont think thats possible anymore anyway. To beat the top  players when you are 14 or 15, i mean. Woman tennis has improved so much in  the last three years, you know, that was like a revolution. Its so much  about power. Even Henin, Clijsters and Dokic only made it to the top when  they were 17 or 18 and they were outstanding talents, far above average...."

"Being the no 500 of the world, you dont have media attention. You have  never been on tv, newspapers dont write about ITF tournaments, and the price  money you earn is obviously not a lot. How do you make you living?" "I got a little sponsor. But honestly only little. Its the company my father  works for. I get a little bit of money from the team i play for and  sometimes earn a few hundred dollars price money. Basically its to much to  starve to death and to less to buy food... if my parents would not support  me the whole thing could not happen"

As my time with Irina came to an end we fought a little while about who is  allowed to pay the bill for our drinks (I won, he he) and i left Bamberg,  knowing i did not only spend a nice sunny day with a nice shining girl, but  also met a convident lovely person who will hopefully make her way to the  top of the Tennis-world as quick as she made her way to the top of Gerhards  world :-)

Good Luck, Irina