Maia Laaning Ch. 07

Whenever Maia would protest about the unreasonable amount of work she was expected to do, Vivian scoffed. She reminded her daughter that from twelve years of age until she left for college she had to milk by hand, four cows twice daily requiring a total of four hours of her time daily; that is every day seven days per week. Maia soon realized she was never going to get her mother to relent on the assigned daily work routine expected of her.

Maia was strong willed in character and able to articulate her position effectively. Nevertheless, she was not irrevocably rebellious, but was perceptive enough to sense when she could not prevail in an argument or difference of opinion. In such cases she would surrender her position gracefully and this avoided any long lasting acrimony between her and her mother.

During her teenage years Maia harbored an impression she was being hard done by her mother's tyrannical rule and to a lesser extent her stepfather. When she matured to adulthood, though, she realized that the iron rule imposed by her parents was the impetus for her to develop into a worthwhile woman and solid citizen. She was especially pleased with her youthful time spent in taking piano lessons and pursuing her tennis interests. The same made possible a lifelong recreational activity that provided genuine joy in her leisure time.

Having turned nineteen and with the prospect of graduating from high school within a few months away, the crunch time for deciding whether to pursue a full time professional tennis career or go to college had come to pass for Maia. It was the main subject of intense discussion throughout her senior high school year and intensified after her nineteenth birthday.

Once a female tennis player turns eighteen, there are no longer any restrictions on how many professional tournaments a player can enter in a season. Because of past history of very young female tennis players burning out as a result of the heavy physical and psychological stress demands on the body and personality which professional tennis can inflict, the WTA limits the number of professional tournaments in a season that a player younger than eighteen can participate in.

As, there was no debate that Maia personally wanted to finish high school, she had time to make a decision as to whether to pursue seriously a professional tennis career or concentrate on her tertiary education instead. Once she turned eighteen Wimbledon, based on her success as a junior, when she was sixteen and seventeen, granted her a 'wildcard' entry to the main draw of the event, but she had to withdraw from the invitation. She was incapacitated at the time as she had contacted mononucleosis just like her mother had when she was in high school. At least unlike her mother, she was not sidelined as long and had regained her health in time to commence her final year in high school in September. Maia had recovered enough to compete in the Tallinn Open WTA tournament in September, whereby she reached the finals and was runner up in the tournament losing to an experienced Czech player who had a slam title achievement in her career.

Vivian had not interfered in trying to influence her daughter one way or the other. As Vivian viewed it, that it was Maia's life, and she had the right as an adult to decide her own future. Vivian was ready to give advice if asked, but otherwise left it all up to Maia.

As Vivian and Mia discussed her future after completion of high school, they reviewed the pros and cons for playing on the WTA tour. For one thing, it is the most lucrative sport for female athletes to earn a living. Top stars earn millions in prize money for successful performances and such income is augmented by corporate sponsorship, The latter includes tennis shoes, clothing suppliers and especially tennis racquets. Mind you, in Maia's case the potential earnings is not as strong an incentive as it is for most players on the tour. Maia had imagined that she would eventually run her mother's craft beer enterprise and substantially expand it.

Then again playing on the WTA tour does not preclude a player from simultaneously owning and operating a successful business enterprise(s). Several players including Serena and Venice Williams, Maria Sharapova, Naomi Osaka had launched successful business enterprises while still playing on the tour. The most conspicuous example was American tennis player Jessica Pegula who rose to a career high ranking of No 3 in the world. While still playing on the tour, Jessica along with her sister, opened a quick-serve restaurant called Healthy Scratch, with an ice hockey-themed decor, located in a mixed-use complex development owned by her parents in Buffalo, New York. Her parents also owned the Buffalo Sabers of the NHL, and hence the ice hockey-themed decor of the restaurant. The Healthy Scratch business expanded to a food truck service as well. In addition, Pegula introduced her own skin-care line called Ready 24.

The main incentive for Maia to contemplate a professional's tennis career was the pure joy she experienced in playing tennis. Maia was a very competitive person. As she excelled in her skills, there was no greater adrenaline high and satisfaction derived, than gaining a victory over her opponent. Especially satisfactory would be winning a close match featuring some exquisite shot making.

The con or the major drawback to pursuing a professional tennis career is the exhaustive schedule. The tennis season lasts little more than ten months in the year, with only December and half of November devoid of any lucrative tennis tournaments. Even more detrimental to the well being to one's body is the required travel to the various tournaments. Tennis is played all over the world; there are tournaments held in every continent with the obvious exception of Antarctica.

A startling example of such a grueling schedule was provided by Anett Kontaveit during a successful late summer and autumn schedule wherein she rose in rankings from No 30 in the world to No 6 in the world and eventually to No 2. In August of that year, she competed in tournaments at Montréal, Canada and in Cincinnati, Cleveland and New York in the United States. In September she won a tournament in the Czech Republic. At the beginning of October, it was back to the United States to compete in the tournaments in Chicago and in California. After that in the last two weeks of October she won the two tournaments: one in Moscow and the other in Romania. Finally, in the beginning of November she was runner-up in the Year End Championships event held in Mexico; after which she finally got to go back to her home in Tallinn.

Thus, in less than four months Anett had crisscrossed the Atlantic six times. Besides that, the flights from Chicago to California and from Moscow to Romania were long tedious flights as well. Plus, the tournament in Mexico was held in a city situated more than 5,000 feet above sea level. It was no wonder she was exhausted ragged during this intense grueling schedule.

It is no wonder that a tennis career is relatively short compared to other sports. The vast majority of players are done by the time they reach their late twenties or early thirties. Maia's overall view was that a professional tennis career would be worth her while if she could be certain that she would have a reasonable chance of meaningful success on the tour. The fact at the age of eighteen she was ranked so low compared to Anett's ranking was not really an issue. After all, if she did join the WTA tour full time, she would devote her entire time to practice and playing tennis plus getting into optimum physical shape with workouts in the gym. As it was, by her performance at the Tallinn Open, her ranking rose to 320th in the world,

A full time commitment would offset the lack of extensive experience which Maia had devoted to tennis during her pre-teen and teenage years. In addition to improving the basic techniques and rudiments of tennis skills instilled in her by her regular Estonian coaches, Maia would be hiring a proven experienced coach who would be useful in concocting strategy to combat the talents of the regular established players on the tour. In addition, a fitness coach could also work wonders in improving her stamina required to overcome a grueling three hours tennis match. Her current coach, Toomas Tamala was bullish on her chances of success. He could see her determination to succeed could spell out a successful tennis career.

This then led to the second factor that had a profound negative impact on deciding whether Maia could indeed expect a successful professional tennis career: namely her buxom bosom. Maia had matured into a voluptuous woman with breasts of a "DD" cup size. Unfortunately, big breasts undeniably are uncomfortable while playing tennis. It prevents the big breasted woman from reacting as quickly as needed at the slightest change of pace or direction of the ball hit by her opponent on the court. In the power game utilized by most professional players on the WTA tour, it is essential for a woman to have to move a lot, and having big boobs hampers such movement, and thus puts her at a disadvantage.

Toomas Tamala heartlessly summed it up, "If you truly want to have a meaningful and successful career in tennis, Maia, you may have to contemplate breast reduction surgery. You have to consider Simona Halep's example of the actual sacrifice; you must make to achieve the pinnacle of success you would want to desire."

Simona Halep was a Romanian tennis star, who reached a career high ranking of No 1 in the world and won two grand slam titles. At the age of 18, she successfully underwent breast reduction surgery, during which excess breast tissue was eliminated. Almost immediately after rehabilitation, Ms Halep was able to take part in competitions again, but her life had changed noticeably. Firstly, the discomfort during the movements had completely disappeared. Secondly, Simona Halep began to feel more confident in her abilities.

Simona had declared in interviews, that she did not regret her decision to undergo breast reduction surgery at all, especially considering that she had also experienced psychological complexes. In her opinion her previous large breast size compared to her small stature did not look very attractive and created the impression of disproportion. Her before surgery pictures which exhibited her enormous breast size, compared to her after surgery pictures with her reduced breast size would tend to confirm that assertion.

But Maia pointed out that Ms Halep was only 168 cm tall (5'6") whereas she was 183 cm tall (6 ft). Thus, in her opinion her breasts were in perfect proportion to her height. If anything, breast reduction for her would create the impression of disproportion the other way. However, Maia had to admit that breast reduction surgery would empirically improve her tennis prowess on the court. The germane question was would Maia be willing to make such a sacrifice for a better tennis career?

If she truly aspired to a successful tennis career, Maia would have to postpone going to college. Later on, after her tennis career was over, there would be lots of time for her to pursue a business career and also to pop out four babies. The latter goal, both mother and daughter viewed as Maia's ultimate destiny. Thus, the option to forgo college for now was not a deal breaker for Maia, especially considering the relative brevity of a typical full time professional tennis career. Also, there are and have been some women on the WTA tour, who became mothers and still continued playing successfully after giving birth. In fact three of them, namely Margaret Court, Evonne Goolagong Cawley and Kim Clijsters won grand slam titles while being mothers.

Of course, the elephant in the room, in the debate as to whether to compete in the WTA tour, was the question of breast reduction surgery. Maia had developed a truly mature outlook on this issue. At this point she was convinced that she would have to undergo breast reduction surgery if she wanted a stellar tennis career and even surpass Anett's career to become Estonia's greatest professional tennis player.

On the other hand, she was loathe to have her breasts reduced. In her mind she knew she had an exemplary attractive female body which was enhanced by her perfectly shaped breasts. Although not very religious, she still believed in the existence of God, and she adhered to her mother's theological view than whenever man interferes in what is in the province of God, man suffers. Thus, God gave her these breasts and she would be foolish to tamper with His design.

From Maia's viewpoint, she got the impression that during the past weekend orgy she had arguably the most enticing boobs; better than Anna's or even better than her mother's sumptuous breasts. Certainly, the sole male in the equation, Dmitri Arkhangelsky, seemed totally delighted in mauling her tits at every opportunity, which in turn was one of the greatest source of pure physical pleasure she had enjoyed that weekend. She knew that she wasn't prepared, nor would she be willing to make such a sacrifice in order for her to have a successful professional tennis career.

After lots of discussion with her mother as well as with her stepfather, she came to a decision. She announced, "I have been advised by my coach Toomas Tamala, that in light of my success in the Tallinn tournament, and being an American citizen as well as Estonian, accordingly I will receive wild card entries to the qualifying rounds of the two big tournaments in March, namely Indian Wells in California and Miami in Florida. In addition, since I was unable to accept the wild card entry to last year's Wimbledon tournament, as a result of my illness. Wimbledon still wants to honor my success in the junior girls championship events when I was seventeen and sixteen. Accordingly, Toomas informs me that I will also receive a wildcard this year but not to the main draw, but at least to the qualifying rounds of the Wimbledon tournament this summer.

"So, I've decided that I shall play those tournaments. I'll make arrangements with my school to obtain proper leaves of absence. I do intend to finish high school no matter what. After playing those tournaments I'll be in a better position to gauge whether to pursue a professional tennis career would be worth my while. If I do not think I can realistically hope to match or better Anett's career results, then I'll simply start classes at the University of Tartu in September. I do not wish to have a mediocre career. In no case will I undergo breast reduction surgery just to ensure achieving a better tennis career. I love my boobies and I aim to keep them intact."