Did Murray know his British successors? Nadal’s sparring partner and German fighter | Wimbledon

George Lovhagen received a full page feature in the British newspaper Quality in 2018 times. The title didn’t lie:George Löfhagen is Great Britain’s best hope of life after Andy Murray“.

Loffhagen had a number of promising Grand Slam results as a junior. He even became Rafael Nadal’s sparring partner in “tournaments”. The young Briton enjoyed the hours he spent on court with the Spanish Grand Slam champion.

Loffhagen, who was completely fascinated by tennis, decided to leave school and focus everything on the sport. But the transition from juniors to professionals turned out to be quite significant. Lovhagen could not handle the pressure and expectations of the press, the federation and the public, and after a while the rackets remained in the tennis bag.

Loffhagen went back to studying. Until recently, to make ends meet, he poured pints and cleared tables at a popular pub, The Marlborough Head in Marble Arch.

In the middle of last year, Löfhagen started playing tennis intensively again. The logic was simple. At 40, he was now 22, and he didn’t want to regret any missed opportunities to become a professional tennis player.

In April, Loffhagen won his first $25,000 tournament in India, and in May he won another title in Nottingham. Suddenly, Loffhagen rose to No. 360 in the ATP rankings. Wimbledon rewarded him for his results with a wild card and he will soon go on to his first round match against Holger Röhn.

Löfhagen said: “This is a dream come true. I am enjoying my time on the track even more now, I have matured and put everything in a better perspective. I will thoroughly enjoy the experience of playing tennis for my family and friends at Wimbledon against the best player of all time.”

Just like Georg Lovhagen, Jan Chośński sits on a cloud. On the opening day of the tournament, he defeated Dusan Lajovic en route to the second round in his Grand Slam debut.

Chwinski is the son of a British mother from Southampton and a Polish father. Jan was born in Koblenz, Germany. It went like this. His mother trained in ballet at the famous Royal Ballet School in London, and also danced for the company for a few years, after which she received an offer from a company in Germany. There she met a Polish ballet dancer. They married and Jan was their son, who obtained German citizenship at birth.

Jan tried ballet, but chose tennis and also played briefly for Germany. In the winter of 2018, Choynski headed to Florida to prepare for the upcoming season. He met the British team there and we quickly clicked.

Jan said he could get British citizenship through his mother and he really liked it. The British Association saw the potential of Jan, then No. 250 in the world, and welcomed him with open arms.

In recent years, Choynski has suffered from one injury to another during hip and shoulder operations. Last year he had mononucleosis and had coronavirus. The result is a major free fall in the world rankings, away from the top 650.

But Choynski fought his way back. He has been sleeping at the LTA Training Center in Roehampton, working 6 days a week from 9am to 6pm to regain his speed.

Through the lower future and competition circuits, he has risen to 160th place and is the sixth Briton in the world rankings. In the second round he plays against his good friend Hubert Hurkacz, with whom he played doubles at Wimbledon when he was young.

Choynski is excited: “I’m living my dream. The British public pushed me to beat Lajovic. I feel a lot of support. I’ve been through a lot of misery in recent years due to surgeries and illness. This is a reward for everyone whose work has been done.”