Wikipedia - Tatjana Maria
Tatjana Maria (née Malek; born 8 August 1987) is a German professional tennis player. In July 2025, she reached her career-best singles ranking of world No. 36 at 37 years and 11 months old. In June 2016, she peaked at No. 54 in the doubles rankings.
She has won four singles titles and four doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as one singles title on the WTA Challenger Tour. She has also won 16 singles and 15 doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. She has played 1250 singles matches, the third highest number of tennis matches in the Open Era, after just Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert.
She has made 16 appearances (23 matches) for Germany in the Billie Jean King Cup competition between 2006 and 2011 and between 2018 and 2025. She won three of her four WTA Tour titles after giving births and after being 34, winning her biggest title (a WTA 500) at 37 years old.
History
2013–2016: Wimbledon third round, top 100 debut
Maria took a sabbatical in 2013, to have her first child, and returned to tour at the 2014 Copa Colsanitas.
2017–2020: Top 50, first WTA Tour title
Maria reached a career-high ranking in the top 50 in November 2017.
She won her first singles WTA Tour title at the 2018 Mallorca Open defeating Anastasija Sevastova.
2022: First major semifinal at Wimbledon
Maria won her second title at the 2022 Copa Colsanitas, defeating Laura Pigossi in the final.
At the Wimbledon Championships she defeated Astra Sharma, Sorana Cîrstea and then world No. 5, Maria Sakkari (her fifth top 10 win), and, in the round of 16, the 12th-seeded Jeļena Ostapenko, winning after saving two match points. This made her the oldest player to debut in a Wimbledon quarterfinal. In the quarterfinals, she beat compatriot Jule Niemeier who was ranked 97th, in three sets. She reached a Wimbledon semifinal as the sixth female player in the Open era over the age of 34, and the sixth woman from Germany. She lost her semifinal match to the second seed and world No. 2, Ons Jabeur, in three sets. She was the first mother-of-two to make the last four of a major since Margaret Court at Wimbledon 1975, and only the fourth player ranked outside the top 100 to reach the Wimbledon semifinals. She was awarded the WTA Comeback Player of the Year for her performance in 2022.
2023–2024: Third title, Olympics qualification
Maria defended her title at the 2023 Copa Colsanitas in Bogotá by defeating Peyton Stearns in the final.
At the 2024 Copa Colsanitas, she could not defend her title losing to local favorite and 2021 champion, Camila Osorio, in the quarterfinals and fell down to No. 65 in the singles rankings.
She was selected as the German No. 2 player for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
2025: Oldest WTA 500 champion
At age 37 and 312 days, at the 2025 Queen's Club Championships, Maria became the oldest woman to reach a WTA 500 final and the oldest WTA singles finalist since Serena Williams won the 2020 title in Auckland at age 38. Maria defeated Amanda Anisimova to become the "Queen of Queen's" and win her first WTA 500 title and second on grass, the first woman champion at Queen's Club for over half a century, having come through qualifying to earn the right to play the tournament. She was also the oldest ever winner of a WTA 500 event.
The following month, she was runner-up at the WTA 125 Hall of Fame Open, losing to Caty McNally in the final.