Maia Laaning was born in Chicago, but her mother, Vivian Laaning, took her to Estonia, one of the Baltic States in Europe, when she was five months old for a vacation. During that visit her widowed mother met and fell in love with an Estonian dairy farmer and married him. As, a result Maia grew up in Estonia and had dual citizenship status. As Estonian elementary education starts when children are seven years old, Maia was finishing her final high school year as she turned nineteen in January.
During her penultimate year in high school when she turned eighteen, Maia had formed the impression that when she would graduate from high school, she just might still be a virgin. Although highly sexed and eager to participate in sex, she found her male peers unappealing. As a result, she not even gone out on a date,never mind coming close to even being kissed.
Now in some circles of society, being a female and still a virgin while in her last secondary school year would be deemed prudent, even laudable. However, in the atmosphere of her friends and even with her own mother that status was not deemed as something to be desired and especially not to be proud of. Nevertheless, she couldn't imagine herself eagerly willing to have sex with any of her male schoolmates, just for the sake of losing her virginity. So, she had come to the conclusion, that her first occasion for
straight sex would have to be with an older man.
She dismissed the possibility of having sex with one of her male teachers at school, since in her mind she found the idea repugnant. Besides most of her teachers were likewise unappealable to her. The only other older man Maia had any regular contact with was her tennis coach, Toomas Tamala. At least he did stir sexual interest in her mind and heart.
Maia was aware that it's an open secret that some of the female professional tennis players regularly have sexual relationships with their male coaches. Hardcore tennis fans even suspect that situation to be commonplace. However, in Maia's case the opportunity for sex with Tamala was virtually nonexistent. Given the household chores required of her by her mother, plus her schoolwork, there literally was not enough hours in the day for the opportunity to seduce Tamala. Besides, Maia knew he was a circumspect gentleman, not to mention actually married. Thus, it was really up to her to force an assignation if there was ever going to be one.
One of the consequences of Maia turning eighteen, was the fact she could no longer compete in the junior girls' tournaments in tennis. With her heavy schedule at home, she was prevented from embarking on a full time schedule on the WTA (Women's Tennis Association) tour, and so she rarely had any contact with Tamala during that time. Because of her success in winning the girls singles title, the preceding year when Maia was seventeen years old, Wimbledon was prepared to offer her a wildcard entry to the main draw of the single women's competition. Unfortunately, like her mother before her, Maia contacted mononucleosis and could not take advantage of the opportunity of playing in one of the most prestigious and storied tennis tournaments.
Luckily for Maia, unlike her mother, her illness was short lived, and her recovery was quick, as opposed to the considerable prolonged recovery period her mother had to endure at approximately of the same age. As a result, she was able to enter the WTA tournament held at Tallinn in September of that year. In that tournament, Maia did enjoy some success by reaching the finals. She was beaten by a strong Czech player who had reached a career high ranking (CHR) of number two in the world as well as having won one grand slam title. So, there was no shame in losing to such a star player, and besides with that performance, it allowed Maia to rise in WTA ranking to No. 353 in the world.
With that result, Toomas Tamala was able to successfully lobby the tournament officials of the Indian Wells and the Miami tournaments to award Maia a wildcard entry to the qualifying rounds of their respective tournaments. The fact that Maia was an actual American citizen plus supported by the Estonian Tennis Association (Eesti Tennise Liit) was appealing enough for hardcore women's tennis fans to appreciate seeing her compete. Besides her CHR of No 353 plus the fact that she had won the Wimbledon Girls Singles title amply justified the inclusion of Maia for the qualifying rounds.
As noted, the Wimbledon tournament officials had been willing to bestow a wildcard entry directly to the main draw the previous year when she was eighteen years of age. As she did not compete because of her illness, there was still interest in accommodating Maia the opportunity of allowing her to compete in the current year's tournament. However, because of her inactivity in WTA tournaments since winning the Girls Singles title, direct entry to the main draw could not be justified. With again Tamala's persistent advocacy on behalf of Maia, the Wimbledon tournament officials agreed to allow her entry to the qualifying rounds.
At the time Maia started her last year in high school, she had all but made her mind up to forego her ambition of competing full time on the WTA tour. However, with her success at the Tallinn tournament coupled with her permission to play in the American tournaments in March, plus the Wimbledon tournament, revived in her the desire to try and see how successful she might be as a professional tennis player. So, she decided that if she did well in these three tournaments, she would forego going to college for one year and see how well she could do in competing full time on the WTA tour.