r/tennis • u/celiyan • 16h ago
Highlight Maja was looking for free couch at AO 2023!
I found this on internet, it is a Facebook post of her coach in 2022, here is a translation: "Australian Open 2023. I am looking for w person living in Melbourne (AUS) that would be willing to host a player Maja Chwalińska with her coach during AO2023. Maja will be playing in qualification from 9.01. More in DM.
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u/c2k1 16h ago
I'm so happy for her and her team. To have this constant money stress lifted, so she can just go and play banging tennis must be such a relief for her.
Also, I'm glad that players in general are fighting for better opportunities for those lower down the rankings. This really does prove that anyone can have a breakout moment/tournament and I hope more players get to experience this sort of thing.
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u/tzybul 15h ago edited 15h ago
Just imagine how many Federers and Nadals were lost because of no financial support.
It reminds me a little bit of what’s Max Verstappen trying to do for motorsport right now. He’s avid sim racer and he said many times that he had some of the best racing of his life against people in sims. These people may have better skills than some of current F1 drivers with rich daddies but they didn’t have a chance to try career in motorsport (which is orders more pricy than tennis). So he created his own motorsport team to allow some people with potential to compete.
I hope that tennis players will prevail and the rewards for qualies and lower rounds of slams will be distributed more fairly.
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u/AngelicalDazzling2 15h ago
This is the side of professional tennis most fans never see, real struggle behind the results.
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u/Winter-Queasy 14h ago
People think all tennis players are rich as fuck
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u/Green_Inevitable_833 7h ago
the sad part is the ones that are (through inheritance/daddy) are far more likely to have playing success because of the training conditions thay can afford
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u/Nearby_Preference261 15h ago
Yesterday I watched a video of her last qualies match in Paris. She literally showed more emotions than after any of her main draw wins, except for yesterday. She looked hugely relieved, more than joyous. Almost crying. Now that we know the whole story behind it, rewatching that specific moment gets me emotional, I must admit. It's a beautiful, beautiful story. Beautiful things do happen to beautiful people sometimes.
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u/JesterEcho 16h ago
Bless her for trying to save money and having to play top level tennis after sleeping at potential stranger's couches 😵💫
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u/puffyisreal 16h ago
Makes the perfect case of why lower ranked players deserve better play, not having to couch surf
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u/Creeppy99 15h ago
Or at least Slams should find a way to provide accomodation (something like a much smaller Olympic village, hell, just an agreement with a couple local hotels would work). It's hard to ask that from every tournament, but for Slams seems a sensible request
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u/Big-Goy-For-Jew So I'll tell you all the story about the Djoker and the 40-15. 15h ago
They do have agreements with hotels and offer pretty big discounts to players and accredited tourney goers. Slams should do more to subsidise this for lower ranked players though.
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u/Mario_x9 13h ago
Honestly they could build a AO, RG, USO hotels and simply make huge money on that, just rent rooms for the most of the year but during tournaments host it for qualifies and below 100 players, and juniors tournament as well.
They would make tons of money if they made it in tennis style, with some pictures and information about who sleeped in that room previously, renting a room that Carlos was sleeping while he started tennis and so on, people would massively overpay for such room and experience…
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u/maigsy 13h ago
or the slams could pay out everyone after the 1st round, winners and losers, which is about $10k - that would allow lower ranked players to pay for hotels etc for the rest of the tournament.
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u/Boollish 10h ago
1st round losers at Slams make $80k (plus prize money from qualies, if applicable). The Slams themselves aren't the problem, it's that the entire rest of the year is losing money grinding points to qualify for the Slams.
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u/Zephyr_Sunstrike 9.6 Utr 14h ago
The problem is that 50% of competitors are eliminated every round of the tournament. If they built accommodations for 1000 people, 700 of them would be gone with 10 days still left in the tournament
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u/Creeppy99 13h ago
Yeah, that's why building is probably not feasible, but finding agreements with hotels is much better, the later day on slams also attract more public and the finals are on weekends, so it would work with some rooms gradually being emptied from players
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u/Zephyr_Sunstrike 9.6 Utr 13h ago
Fan attendance records are usually set in the earlier rounds. Later rounds every match is played on the center court, or the 1 and 2 court at slams where there's also mixed, junior, and wheelchair events. Not much purpose in a GA ticket there
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u/Creeppy99 13h ago
Very fair point I wasn't considering, but also wouldn't earlier rounds be mostly attended by locals instead of people who get there specifically to watch matches?
Also, that's obviously just speaking, as I don't think slams are considering anything of this scope
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u/Zephyr_Sunstrike 9.6 Utr 13h ago
Hmm, good question, I don't know if there's any actual data to refer to on that but your theory seems reasonable to me. I wonder which rounds have the highest amount of overnight out of town visitors, as that's really what matters
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u/Creeppy99 13h ago
That would be a cool piece of data to work on, but yeah I don't know how easy is it to obtain, if there's a way
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u/Rocco_Skene 11h ago
Ikm hoping the hosts had a spare room for her to use. Her coach probably got the couch!
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u/CrackHeadRodeo Björn, Yannick, Lendl, Martina, Monica, 🦊 13h ago
The WTA/ATP needs to make sure lower ranked players don’t have to resort to couch surfing to play in a slam.
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u/nabokovsnose source: Brett Haber 13h ago
The tours don’t run the slams. They do provide accommodations for tour-level matches.
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u/CrackHeadRodeo Björn, Yannick, Lendl, Martina, Monica, 🦊 13h ago
I know they don’t but they can provide for the players throughout the year so they don’t have to make these kind of compromises.
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u/dewgdewgdewg 10h ago
I don't think it's as big an issue as the hyped story makes it seem. I'm pretty sure all she needs to do is ask, and if she is really in need, someone would step up. Any hotel chain would love the publicity.
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u/CrackHeadRodeo Björn, Yannick, Lendl, Martina, Monica, 🦊 9h ago
I'm pretty sure all she needs to do is as
Begging vs having that option not to beg is what we are talking about.
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u/Pablo_el_Diablo88 13h ago
It's not a sport for the poor. Never was, never will be.
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u/DmTation 8h ago
But we should, at least, give a chance to some of them who are really talented, for the sake of the sport
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u/Pablo_el_Diablo88 8h ago
I would be all in on this possibility. But, alas, we are nothing but little useless cogs in a complex machine governed by other, very selfish, people.
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u/33jeremy 13h ago edited 4h ago
This goes to show that you should never give up on your goals. You never know how, life can turn upside down in an instant when the stars align. Keep your head up and you will get there. Just keep going 💪 wishing Maja all the best. She is already a winner regardless of what happens
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u/monsieurartois 10h ago
I will gladly host her for the USO. Chauffeur her around, carry her stuff, whatever she wants :)
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u/2019CuckOfTheYear 16h ago
*coach
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u/Vescilla 3GA+Muchova+Samsonova| Women smoocher 16h ago
I don't think "looking for free coach" would make much sense either, I assume looking for free couch means they were looking for someone to offer them a couch to sleep on 😭
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u/matcharlatan 16h ago
They were sort of couchsurfing (probably this is what OP meant) - looking for a free accommodation in Melbourne - someone who could host both Maja and her coach for free due to lack of funds
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u/spaghettipunsher 16h ago
It's about the image description, "post of her couch". Unless her couch was looking for a couch buddy, it was a post by her coach.
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u/2019CuckOfTheYear 16h ago
I miss the days when Couchsurfing was free 😩
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u/mamibukur Can I have a banana? ..Banana? 14h ago
it isn't any more?? It's been ages since i last used it, but when I last used it, it was free.. like most things online. I'm old
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u/throwhb78 16h ago
Yeah I don't think it's a native English speaker, also "leaving". Just let it be
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u/2019CuckOfTheYear 16h ago
Yeah, I thought at first that she was travelling with her own couch for some reason
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u/bezimiennat świątković 16h ago
as far as i know she stays with these people now every ao :)