Hamburg - Instead of playing in Rome at the WTA tournament, German tennis champion Andrea Petkovic is working in the press room at the men's Hamburg Masters. Petkovic, 20, is writing an entertaining blog for the local Abendblatt daily and doing work for the Hamburg 1 television station.
"Í like writing and this gives me a nice little break from rehabilitation," Petkovic, who is still curing the cruciate ligament in the right knee she ruptured in January, tells Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
She has also written a blog from the WTA Tour for Germany's leading daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and been responsible for the websites of small tournaments.
The blogs show that she loves to write, while on the reading side her favourite authors are Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Oscar Wilde.
He hairdo reveals that she prefers British indie-rock over mainstream music and when she returned from four hours of dancing at an open-air rave event on Monday she named it "The best party of my life."
Next week she will be starting a 14-day work experience in the office of Roland Koch, the acting prime minister of the central German state of Hesse, where she lives, in the town of Griesheim.
After all, she plans to study political science after her tennis career and then would like to become a politician.
"I am considering joining the Social Democratic Party. I am very interested in politics," says Petkovic, who speaks four languages (German, English, Serbian and French).
All this gives an indication that Petkovic isn't your average player who has nothing but tennis on her/his mind.
Tennis is just one part of the life of Petkovic, whose parents are from Tuzla and whose father and coach Zoran played Davis Cup for Yugoslavia.
After graduating from high school in 2006 with the best possible marks, Petkovic turned her attention to professional tennis, having played the game since the age of six.
In a unique masterplan, she gave herself two years to see whether she could make an impact on the WTA Tour and make the top 50. If she fails, the studies and a possible political career could come soon.
"Being ranked around 100 is only a waste of time. That's not worth the effort in tennis," she said.
Petkovic reached the second round at the French and US Open, won the German championships and played Fed Cup, and finally broke into the top 100 early this year.
But she had only barely gained that 91 ranking on January 7 when disaster struck at the Australian Open eight days later. Petkovic ruptured the cruciate ligament in her right knee in the first minute of her opening match with Russia's Anna Chakvetadze.
"I knew immediately that the injury was grave," said Petkovic on the fateful day.
A small scar below the knee is all that is seen of the subsequent operation. But the injury will see her sidelined from the Tour a little longer, with Petkovic hoping to return to WTA action at the Porsche Grand Prix in Stuttgart in October after playing in some smaller tournaments to get ready for it.
Petkovic is confident that she can continue her rise through the rankings in what due to the injury is now a three-year plan.
"I am already much fitter than I was last year, so I am very confident. The plan is still to reach the top 50," she says.
Petkovic says she hopes to get a wildcard for Stuttgart, if only for the qualifying round.
"My favourite tournament is the French Open but I love playing in Germany as well. It is so nice playing in front of the home fans," she says.
