When Yannick Hanfmann steps on a tennis court, he has more than one motivation in his mind.
The 31-year-old German, who was locked in a fifth-set battle with ninth seed Taylor Fritz on Monday before rain suspended play at Wimbledon, has a plan in place for some of the money he earns as a professional tennis player. Inspired by a 2017 visit to a cheetah conservation centre in Stellenbosch, South Africa, Hanfmann aims to use his success to contribute to a cause close to his heart.
“Cheetahs were my favourite animal when I grew up and they still are,” Hanfmann told ATPTour.com last month. “I’m trying to put some money to charity every year, depending on how I play. The first few years it was the cheetahs in Stellenbosch and now it shifted to orangutans in Borneo.
“I love animals in general, but orangutans, gorillas, certain monkeys and cheetahs [are my favourites]. I see documentaries and stuff and I just can’t help but feel emotional about them. It’s something I’m passionate about.”
As a pro travelling year-round on the ATP Tour, the time Hanfmann can devote to off-court hobbies and passions is limited. Having arrived at Wimbledon this year at a career-high No. 45 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, the German’s focus is currently solely trained on tennis, but he is keeping an open mind about his post-playing plans.
“At this point I don’t know, but [animals are] definitely something I’m passionate about, so who knows?,” said Hanfmann, when asked if he was interested in becoming more involved in environmental causes in the future. “I don’t want to rule it out. Whatever happens to me after tennis, hopefully I have a little bit of free time and maybe I can get involved with that. It would be cool.”
Hanfmann has become used to the constant travelling during his ATP Tour career, which began after a four-year stint playing U.S. college tennis at the University of Southern California. While seeing new parts of the world is among his favourite hobbies, he admits that preparing to compete against the world’s best is anything but a holiday.
“I love to travel, but maybe not necessarily for tennis, because we obviously do that a lot,” he said. “If I have a little bit of time at the end of the year, to travel with friends and family, I love that so much. You travel so much with your tennis bag and tennis stuff, I hope that after tennis maybe I can put that away and go for it a little bit more with a touristy approach.”
The global tennis merry-go-round nonetheless offers spontaneous opportunities for Hanfmann to experience new things. The German views venturing away from a tournament site to experience local life as essential for handling the relentless, week-on-week nature of the Tour.
“If I have a little bit of time, I try to do as much as I can, but the days during the tournaments are always a little bit crammed,” said Hanfmann. “The practice days are long, but there’s always a certain amount of hours I can use to get out and see some things.
“A few weeks ago, I was in Rome. Rome is amazing city, so I tried to see as much as I can. Once I lost in the tournament, that night I remember we walked basically throughout the whole city for a few hours. That was pretty nice.”
That stroll through town capped a dream fortnight for Hanfmann in the Eternal City, where he charged to his maiden ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final as a qualifier at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia. He backed up his May run on the Rome clay by reaching his first ATP Tour semi-final on grass at the Mallorca Championships last week, and he is confident of maintaining his good form further on a surface with which he has relatively little experience.
“In general, obviously my belief right now is pretty high,” said Hanfmann. “I feel like I’ve beaten a lot of good players, [even if not] on grass. It’s a bit shorter of a season [than clay]. My grass results over the years, I would say were average. Sometimes OK, sometimes good, sometimes [not good]. I think it’s the same for everyone. We don’t play on it too much, so it’s tough to say, ‘I cannot play on grass’.
“I think my serve is good, I’ve got a good transition game, so I think with a few matches under my belt I can get comfortable and really be dangerous.”
Hanfmann certainly proved that on Monday at Wimbledon, where he took 2022 quarter-finalist Fritz into a fifth set before rain intervened. If he can push on to defeat the World No. 9 for the second time this season when play resumes (he also beat Fritz in the second round in Rome), the German will advance to the second round of a major for just the third time.
Source Tennis – ATP World Tour
