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Candid Kandarr calls for reappraisal of German game

BERLIN: The likes of Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova were still stocking up their trophy cabinets long after they themselves would have admitted they had reached the veteran stage of their glorious careers.

But some players end up believing they have reached their sell-by date even in the first flush of youth.

Ask Germany's Jana Kandarr, who after booking her passage to the second round of the German Open said she was made to feel she had missed the boat just months into her teens.

The host nation has desperately - and unsuccessfully - been casting around for a successor to Graf as their tennis queen since the 22-time Grand Slam winner's retirement two years ago.

Kandarr, who defeated Dutchwoman Miriam Oremans in three sets on Tuesday to set up a meeting with Belgian teen Justine Henin, is at 24 not going to fill Graf's mantle; but said nobody else would either unless German thinking underwent a sea-change.

"I was told at 14 I was too old!" exclaimed Kandarr, a striking blonde who was nominated as the most impressive newcomer on the women's tour in 1995 but who counts 2000's fourth-round finish at the Australian Opens her best Grand Slam showing.

"I can understand now that I'm not 18 or 19 any more that people are looking at bringing on the very young players. I've ended up giving my own way - which I a pity."

Coming from Halle in the old east Germany Kandarr stunned by the establishment and in own words "hated going to training."

In 1997 she looked set to break into the top 50 but slipped way back before moving to number 60 after a semi-final appearance at Estoril in April.

So frustrated did Kandarr become that she decided to go back to school in 2000 and earn qualifications to study veterinary science.

"I'd like to be able to earn enough from the game to finance my future studies," she explains.

German national coach Markus Schur has been quick to warn against any expectation that a new Graf, nine times Berlin champion, is around the corner.

"It's unfair on our girls to expect that of any of them. The truth is we have leaned too heavily on the successes of Graf and Anke Hube," Schur wrote in his daily column on Tuesday for mass daily Bild.

Kandarr, who earned the nickname Houdini for coming through 2000's Australian Open qualifiers and winning six three-set matches on a roll may thus, not be the new star German fans are looking for.

But if she can pull off an escape act against Henin she will have earned at least a brief spell in the limelight.