Sarah Gronert does not mourn the things, she says.

These days there would be another reason to get a little sad when the tennis elite fights for the second Grand Slam title of the year at the French Open in Paris.

Roland Garros, the sand of dreams - for a long time in the career of the 34-year-old, it seemed realistic that she, too, would eventually hit the largest French tennis facility in the Bois des Boulogne.

David Lindenfeld

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    But because a lot did not go as it should, Sarah Gronert was not on the pitch in the French capital last week, but on the red ashes of the Riederwald at the Hessian tennis championships.

    “Of course you sometimes think: Oh, would have ...”, says Sarah Gronert, before interrupting herself: “But it all fits.

    I've taken a different path and I'm satisfied. "

    At first, it sounds like she had a choice.

    But she didn't have that.

    Because she got to know the unattractive side of the tennis business, in which the vast majority fight for themselves with extended elbows without taking the feelings of others into account.

    And because an injury hit her at the height of her career at the time.

    "That is not a woman"

    When she started it, it just seemed to be going up for her at first.

    Schlomo Tzoref, the trainer of a competitor, once said of Sarah Gronert: "If she starts playing continuously, she will be in the top 50 in six months." That sounds nice, but it wasn't meant nicely because Tzoref was also accused who were not true: “No girl has a serve like her, not even Venus Williams.

    That's not a woman, that's a man, ”he said.

    Who is Sarah Gronert?

    The 34-year-old was born in 1986 in the North Rhine-Westphalian city of Linnich as a hermaphrodite, i.e. with female and male gender characteristics.

    A gynecological-endocrinological certificate and a corresponding birth certificate identify you as a woman.

    A woman who plays tennis well from an early age.

    The international tennis federation ITF and the ladies tour WTA check her case several times, repeatedly granting her the right to start on the ladies tour. But that doesn't interest many there. After winning matches, Sarah Gronert receives congratulations for ATP points - which are only awarded on the men's tour. She was “completely overwhelmed” by the hostility, she said at the time, so she had to take a longer break and was even considering ending her career.

    Sarah Gronert also received a lot of encouragement during this time, continued with renewed courage and then climbed to 164th place in the world rankings. She beats players like Garbine Muguruza and Karolina Pliskova, who would later rise to number one in the world rankings. But a herniated disc ended the hopes of the top 100 and the sand of dreams of Paris in 2012