Maia at Wimbedon

The Wimbledon tournament, designated as "THE CHAMPIONSHIPS" by the British tennis enthusiasts and by the tournament officials themselves, is one of the four grand slam tennis tournaments, in the year. It is held in London, UK, and starts on the last Monday in June unless the first day of July is a Monday. For the women's event, 128 players compete in a knockout elimination rounds format. If you win your match you advance to the next round. If you lose you are eliminated from the tournament. Thus, after the sixth round there are only two players left in the tournament to compete in the final match to capture the championship title.

To make up the 128 players field of competition, the highest 100 ranked players on the WTA tour receive automatic entry into the main draw. The player ranked 101st would only gain entry if a player ranked higher withdraws because of injury or for any other reason does not intend to compete. That process applies then down the line to as many of the actual Top 100 players who do not play.

The Wimbledon tournament officials award what's known as wildcards to twelve players, which under their sole discretion, they deem worthy to have direct entry to the main draw despite not being ranked in the Top 100. Usually, four British players are invariably selected for those twelve spots. Incidentally, the other grand slam tournaments act in the same manner. For example, the USO tournament will invariably select four American players not ranked in the Top 100; ditto for the French Open selecting French players and the Australian Open selecting Australian players. The other wildcard recipients are made up of players considered worthy but for one reason or another, usually because of injuries, missed achieving the Top 100 ranking to gain direct entry automatically.

The remaining sixteen spots for the competition, are filled by players who compete in the qualifying rounds conducted during the preceding week prior of the start of the tournament. There are 128 players entered in the qualifying rounds which also is determined by a knockout elimination format. Accordingly, after three rounds of matches played, there emerges only sixteen players who would have won their three consecutive matches, and thus are entitled to play in the main draw.

Technically speaking, players ranked from 101 to 228 ought to be the ones most entitled to compete in the qualifying rounds, but there are other factors in consideration. For one thing there are two WTA tournaments scheduled during that week which offer more ranking points and higher prize money than the results of the qualifying rounds. Some players who are allowed to play in those tournaments will opt to play there instead of competing to see if they could qualify to play at Wimbledon.

That said, it allows the Wimbledon tournament officials greater latitude in selecting the players to compete in in the qualifying rounds. Hence, Maia Laaning who was ranked as low as No 318, based on her performances at the Tallinn Open the preceding September and at the American tournaments in March was selected even though she couldn't have competed in those other two lesser tournament of that week. The fact that she had won the Wimbledon's Junior Girls title two years previously bolstered her appeal to be invited to play at Wimbledon.

The three qualifying round matches for the women's event are held on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of the last full week in June. On Friday the tournament conducts the draw to set up the matchups for the championship competition to commence on the ensuing Monday, which in that current year happened to have fallen on the penultimate day of June.

After returning from the March tournaments and the impromptu visits to her relatives in the United States, Maia did not do anything in tennis that week. On the next week, she started daily two hour practice sessions on the tennis courts provided for her by the Estonian Tennis Association. Her former coach, Toomas Tamala, was instrumental in persuading the retired greatest Estonian tennis star, Anett Kontaveit, to take over on a temporary basis to coach Maia including her appearance at Wimbledon.

Anett was a very beautiful woman standing at a height of 175 cm (5'9") with a winsome female body. Her pulchritude was highlighted when she shared a photo of herself on social media wearing a really cool outfit, made of a light blue linen suit, consisting of shorts and a blazer. Under the jacket, she wore nothing at all as a tantalizing glimpse of her bare cleavage was visible! Anett was forced to retire from professional tennis and the WTA tour, at a premature age of twenty-seven years. She suffered from a lumbar disc degeneration in her back. That chronic painful back condition did not allow for full-scale training or continued competition. Therefore, it was impossible for her to continue at the top level in such a highly competitive sport.

Anett's main contribution to mentoring Maia during the practice sessions was to instill confidence in Maia of her skills. Anett pointed out that Maia was conversant intellectually of the techniques required for success in tennis. Maia held the racquet properly for maximum effectiveness and had power enough to ensure striking effective serves, ground strokes and volleys. Anett pointed out that her performance at the Tallinn Open proved she could be competitive so that there was no reason to despair. To prevail in the qualifying rounds, and thus gain entry into the main draw of the tournament was doable.

With such a happy disposition and eager anticipation, Maia and Anett departed for the tournament in high spirits on the penultimate Sunday of June. They booked a two bedroom suite at the hotel owned by Baxter & Sons. a company headed by Jed Baxter, her mother's extra marital lover. The hotel was located not too far distant from the tennis site. Because of her mother's relationship with the owner of the hotel, their stay was complimentary, and she was able to induce the hotel to stock the suite's mini bar with her favorite vodka as well as with Glenlivet, the whiskey favored by Anett. Their stay was naturally open ended depending on how long Maia would last in the tennis tournament.

In preparation for her first match, Maia practiced for a couple of hours on Monday at a one of the practice courts at the tournament site. When Maia was apprised of her opponent for the first qualifying match her confidence soared. Her adversary was a British player who was not deemed good enough by the tournament officials to receive a wildcard entry to the main draw. It was even problematic that she should even have been selected as a wildcard entrant to the qualifying rounds. Consequently, Maia easily won 6-0, 6-1 to advance to the second round of the qualifies and keep alive the hope for entry into the main draw.

Maia's second round opponent in the qualifying rounds was a Croatian player who she had defeated two years previously in the quarter finals of the Junior Girls event. That was the event which Maia had ultimately won. Since that event the Croatian player had won a couple of ITF tournaments but had indifferent results in the WTA tournaments and was nowhere close to getting into the Top 100. The match was tight and close, but Maia prevailed, 7-5, 7-6 (3).

Although Maia had realistically expected to win these two matches, nevertheless she was ecstatic that she had now greater success than the two American tournaments in March. She only needed to win the next match in order to gain entry into the main draw and be guaranteed enough prize monies to cover her expenses in competing.

Her opponent was a relatively young American player who had up to this point an up and down career. Her highest career ranking she had achieved to date, was No 53 in the world, but her current ranking was No 137. Now in her mind, Maia confidently believed she could beat her, but by the same token, Maia knew she was a much more formidable opponent than the previous two players. Sure enough, the ensuing match was a very tough challenge for Maia.

In tennis the server has an initial undeniable advantage when serving each and every point of a game. Thus, it is expected that each player should win the majority of points whenever the first serve is good in landing in the service area. If a player misses her first serve, i.e. the serve hits outside the target service area then the returner of serve has a better chance of winning the point on the second serve. In any case when the server wins the game she is deemed to hold serve. If the returner of serve wins the game, she is deemed to have broken serve. So in essence, to win a match one needs to hold one's serve at least one more time in total than her opponent.

In this match, with her opponent serving first to start the match, Maia lost every one of her first five service games before starting to serve for the sixth time in the match. Had her opponent held every one of her service games, Maia would have been facing a scoreline of 0-6, 0-5, seemingly an unsurmountable lead; and psychologically almost impossible to overcome. However, in the first set Maia did manage to win two of her opponent's service games, and so she lost the set by a closer score of 2-6. Thus, when she came to serve for the second time in the second set the score was 2-6, 0-3. That was not so bad as she finally held serve to make the score 2-6, 1-3. Thus. Maia was down only one break of serve in the second set and was still very competitive in the match overall. Thereafter, Maia won every one of her service games, to eventually prevail with the final score of 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.

After Maia won the match point to win the match, Anett rushed from her seat in the stands and hugged Maia tightly in a congratulatory embrace. Ecstatically, she gushed, "Oh wow Maia! What a comeback! You're in the main draw now. You showed some real moxie! You didn't give up on your serve. You played like a champion! You did Estonia proud! You are a worthy successor to me!"

Maia accepted the hyperbolic praise from Anett with equanimity, recognizing the exaggeration was really over the top. Nevertheless, she was herself very excited by this outcome. Accordingly, Maia replied, "Yes this calls for a drink! No doubt about that."

Anett had become accustomed to Maia's penchant for heavy drinking, and so she pulled out from her purse a flask containing Maia's favorite Russian vodka. Maia took a long sip before she handed the flask back to Anett who took a sip as well.

Maia's match was the second scheduled match in one of the outside courts. The first match on that court was a men's qualifying match which went the distance. Men in grand slam tournaments play a best of five sets matches. In this case their match lasted a little more than four hours, so that Maia's match didn't get started until four o'clock in the late afternoon. Consequently, Maia's match did not end until it was a quarter past six.

After Maia had changed to a casual but smart looking outfit, they went to a pub that Anett had favored when she had played at Wimbledon. It was a traditional British pub serving restaurant quality food and contained a large beer garden around the side of the pub. They were seated at a table in the beer garden. Fortunately for them, that day for London at this time of the year, was uncharacteristically sunny. Anett ordered a dish of shepherd's pie while Maia settled for fish and chips. During the meal they drank draft bitter ale. After their meal Maia switched to an expensive vodka on the rocks while Anett settled for a Glenlivet neat.

While they were having a delightful time, rehashing the match, a gentleman approached their table. He boldly, looked at Anett and unmindful that Maia and Anett had been conversing in Estonian, asked in English, "You're Anett Kontaveit, the Estonian tennis player, aren't you?"

Anett replied, "Why yes, indeed I am. I'm flattered that you recognize me, since it's been a few years since I last contested at Wimbledon."

The gentleman gallantly replied, "Of course I recognize you. One cannot easily forget a pretty face like yours and especially considering you were once ranked No 2 in the world even though you hail from a very small country with virtually no representation in tennis."

Anett responded, "I take it you must be an avid fan of women's tennis, as I had expected I would be able to roam around London unrecognized."

The gentleman replied, "Oh yes, I am indeed. I've been faithfully coming to watch Wimbledon matches for the past twenty years or so. I sometimes come to watch the qualifying matches as I love to speculate who will make it to the main draw."

At this point to Anett's surprise, Maia took the initiative and pipped up, "Why don't you join us kind sir. I'm sure Anett and I would be fascinated to hear your viewpoints as a fan of the WTA."

The gentleman was surprised by Maia's bold invitation, but was quick to take advantage, "I would be delighted, but could my friend whom I'm with and who is an equally rabid fan of women's tennis also be included?"

Anett signaled her acquiescence, by answering, "Why certainly, the more the merrier."

To the delight of the ladies, especially Maia, the friend of the gentleman also proved to be of the male persuasion. The gentleman's name was Sebastian Carstairs, and his friend was Herbert Weatherford. Their friendship was forged as a result of their professional relationship. Sebastian was a solicitor, a lawyer who deals with the general public as opposed to a barrister who specializes in court work solely. Herbert was an estate agent who would recommend any of his clients to Sebastian for any legal concerns regarding a real estate transaction. From their developed personal friendship, they discovered a mutual interest in being fans of women's tennis, and thus together they had been attending the Wimbledon tournament for several years.

They usually attended the Saturday matches. For the first Saturday, containing third round action they would pick the premier court that featured two women's matches out of the three matches scheduled. As for the second Saturday, they had tickets for the women's finals. In their convivial conversation, Anett asked if they actually preferred watching women's tennis as opposed to men's tennis.

Sebastian answered, "Of yes most certainly. The women's matches are more interesting to watch because they have invariably longer rallies. There are more games where the server is broken than it occurs in men's tennis. As a young lad, my father took me to the 1991 Wimbledon men's semi final matches. I remember witnessing Michael Stich defeat Stefan Edberg 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5), 7-6 (2). Edberg didn't lose any of his service games, and Stich only lost one of his service games, obviously in the only set that did not get to a tie breaker. I swear there was never a more boring tennis match to watch.

"Of course, the main difference between men's tennis to women's tennis is the powerful serves that the men can produce. I believe the majority of the men can hit serves routinely recorded at or near 140 MPH, and some of them can hit at that pace somewhat regularly. Such a serve is difficult to handle and rarely can one return a winner. In contrast a tiny percentage, i.e. certainly less than one percent, of women players on the WTA tour have ever hit even once in their career, a serve clocked at 120 MPH or better."

That the two gentlemen were so knowledgeable in women's tennis, naturally gave way to a thoroughly enjoyable conversation. The easy free flowing conversation added to the luster of the pleasure Maia and Anett derived from the success of the day's tennis accomplishment. That in turn, especially in the case of Maia led her to contemplate a one night stand as a perfect denouement for a wonderful day. Maia wasn't deterred from the objective fact that their physical appearance was not handsome, but at least they weren't unseemly corpulent. They certainly looked fit and trim, and thus, would be adequate in Maia's mind for a little bit of sensual and most assuredly sinful pleasure. In assessing their appeal to her Maia adjudged them to be Toomas Tamala's age; Sebastian appearing to being slightly older than Herbert. Ergo the latter became the main focus of Maia's attention.

As to the gentlemen they were in a nirvana of utmost blissfulness. There was no doubt or debate that Anett and Maia were the two most outstanding good-looking females present at this pub. Aside from them being pure eye candy, Anett and Maia in their minds were women of substance and not bimbos. This notion was reflected in the fact they were both extremely articulate in addition to Anett having been a successful professional tennis player and Maia, they learned was the stepdaughter of the Prime Minister of Estonia. This belief of superiority was fortified by the consideration that English was not their mother tongue, and yet they both spoke English flawlessly.

Anett even spoke English with a British accent equally comparable to that of a native upper class societal Brit. Anett had perfected her fluency in English, as a result of having trained in the United Kingdom under the tutelage of various British tennis coaches, off and on for several years. As for Maia, she spoke English with a pronounced Slavic/Estonian accent. Her voice was joyfully light despite her accent, such that she was a delight to listen to, especially to men attracted to her. At any time, whenever she deepened her voice into a husky, enchanting timbre, her male listener would be literally seduced to her charms. That particularly was the case with Herbert Weatherford.

Both men were married and were fathers in addition, so that they were not on the prowl to picking up a woman in a bar for sexual congress. In fact the only reason they happened to have entered this pub was happenstance. Every Thursday night they attended a regularly scheduled meeting of a social club they belonged to, which was located in the vicinity of this pub. Usually, the night featured a guest speaker who would expound on various topics of interest to the members. On this particular night, the guest speaker proved to be incredibly boring that they left during the middle of the speech to take in a few drinks at this pub.

As we've seen that upon entering the pub, Sebastian Carstairs, being an avid women's tennis fan recognized Anett. It transpired that Anett was one of the players on the WTA tour whom he had been especially keen on cheering for, aside from the British players. He was very despondent when she had to retire from tennis at such an early age. As a fan, he had hoped Anett would have eventually won one of the grand slam tournaments, and when she rose to No 2 in the rankings, that hope seemed to have become truly realistic.

His intention upon approaching Anett had been by hoping to obtain a selfie with her. That it instead turned out to be a wonderful rendezvous in a pub setting replete with delicious alcoholic drinks and sparkling conversation was beyond his normal expectations for a marvelous evening of entertainment. But as Anett and Maia proved to be extremely affable, it was natural for Sebastian to speculate on the possibility of sex. Under the influence of his alcohol consumption the negative implication of contemplating actual adultery was absent from his mind.

Herbert Weatherford had not recognized Anett initially, although he was aware of her in the course of watching women's tennis matches. As a result, his attention was more focused on Maia. In his mind, she was breathtakingly gorgeous. She was a goddess in the mold of Aphrodite; associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, desire, and of course absolutely pure sex. Maia's potent sexual allure overcame any guilty thoughts concerning adultery which might have otherwise prevented him from harboring such sinful lascivious thoughts.