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Tennis: Jana Kandarr plays to the crowds -
"One has to be a part of the show."

- by STEPHANIE SOURON

There are a few people who have incredible drawing power. Some call ths sort of thing an "Aura". Whatever they call it, it is inexplicable, almost supernatural. When such people pass by, other people stop and stare, almost as if they see a vision from another world. Jana Kandarr is such a person. Even when she's warming-up with her trainer at the German Tennis Championships, she draws a bigger crowd than Christian Vinck and Lars Zimmerman who are fighting it out for tournament points on the next court.

And Jana is a vision, the 5 foot 11½ inch tall "grande dame" of German tennis makes an impression on everyone with her outfit. She trains in white, skintight stretchpants, into which she occasionally stuffs one or more tennisballs - ruining the line of her outfit. Over these she wears a dark top with spaghetti-thin shoulderstraps.

A snapshot. "At one time when I went to a tournament, I just found my court and played my game." Kandarr remembers. "Whether I won or lost, people hardly noticed the skinny girl from Halle in the former East Germany." Today Jana can understand this. "I was only a long thin streak on the landscape. No wonder nobody was interested in me."

Training without an audience is something that is no longer possible for the 25 year-old. From the youngest ball boys to greying men in dark suits, everyone wants an autograph from Jana Kandarr. And it isn't only at the German Championships. Even at international tournaments Jana Kandarr is an "Object of Desire". For when Jana has scribbled her name on a T-Shirt or a hurriedly rummaged-out piece of paper, she always gives a quick glance upward. She looks the autograph-hunter deep in the eyes for a moment and smiles.

Jana enjoys giving autographs - no question. But she is also a little critical of the whole business of the "personality cult". "Even now I can't understand why a grown man would be so keen to have my autograph," she says. "I'm just an ordinary person doing my job." Her job is playing tennis, and Jana has spent nine years at this work. In 2000 she finally passed her "Abitur" examinations, qualifying her to enter university. And Jana is already thinking about what will come after her tennis career. "I intend to have a profession which allows me to work with people. I can possibly see myself studying medicine." But there is still a year or two until then.

If she's learnt one thing in her tennis career, it is to fit in. To fit-in with the tennis business means being part of one big travelling show. When Jana Kandarr talks about herself, she looks at herself very truthfully, she is neither affected or arrogant - a quality that the 25-year-old has always possessed. She even sounds a little profound when she philosophises about herself and the tennis circus: "Naturally I try to encourage interest. One has to become a part of the Show."