Heike Albrecht-Schröder has long wanted to take part in a Grand Slam. She started playing tennis at the age of four and, like many young players, she dreamed of playing Center Court at Wimbledon, Paris, New York and Melbourne. Now Albrecht-Schröder will actually fly to Australia and be there at a world premiere.
The first Grand Slam for deaf tennis players begins in Melbourne on January 27, and Albrecht-Schröder is invited to this Australian Open Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHoH). She is currently the German number one in her discipline. Last year she won the singles and finished second in the women’s doubles at the Deaflympics in Caxias Dos Sul, Brazil.
She can’t afford to fly business class
Albert is 31 years old. When Steffi Graf ended her career in 1999 after 22 Grand Slam victories, she was 30. Albrecht-Schröder now has the chance of her first Grand Slam. But she doesn’t want to think that far ahead of the long flight from Munich to Melbourne. The first thing to do is to get through it on narrow armchairs. She can’t afford to fly business class.
A good week before, the tennis player is sitting in a sporty outfit, black shirt and white jacket, her long hair tied back, next to her coach and husband Marius Schröder in the clubhouse of TC Blutenburg, her home club. She just got back from fitness, she says while stirring her cappuccino with a spoon. After the interview, she will still be on the pitch as a trainer. This is how she mainly earns her living. Training, work and playing tournaments are quite exhausting, says Albrecht-Schröder. The body of a top athlete also needs regeneration phases, says her husband.
Albrecht-Schröder has been deaf since birth, and the first contact with her was via email. She is asked how to communicate with her at a meeting. “Quite normal in spoken language,” she writes back, “I mostly read everything from lips.” That Albrecht-Schröder can actually articulate very clearly comes as a surprise. “It’s not the rule to speak as well as Heike,” says her husband, who is not deaf himself. The topic of deafness will take up a lot of space in the conversation with Albrecht-Schröder. “I think that’s good,” she says. Because deafness is far too little present in everyday life.
There are around 80,000 deaf people in Germany, says Albrecht-Schröder. Most hearing people would not know how to deal with them. “I wish that we could participate much more in society.” She is committed to this and wants to be a role model for young athletes. Last year, she received the Silver Laurel Leaf from the hands of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the highest sporting award that he can bestow as head of state. “Heike is also an exception as a person,” says Anne Köster from the Deaf Sports Association, which represents 200 top-class deaf athletes.
Insufficient oxygen at birth robbed Albrecht-Schröder of his ability to hear
Insufficient oxygen at birth robbed Albrecht-Schröder of his ability to hear. From an early age, however, her mother practiced making sounds with her. To increase the sensitivity to the sounds, she held a balloon to her face. As soon as she could walk, her parents took her to the tennis court and found out that the daughter has a good feel for the ball.
She received coaching lessons and was allowed to travel from Niederzier near Düren to the tennis camp in Ruhpolding during the school holidays. “I’m from the Rhineland,” emphasizes Albrecht-Schröder, but she loves the mountains. So it was quite right for her to go to Munich, where she studied pedagogy for the hearing impaired and psychology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University.
Albrecht-Schröder at the Deaflympics last year.
(Photo: Anton Schneid/oh)
Albrecht-Schröder wears sensitive hearing aids in both ears. Since last year, the latest version has even been able to listen to music via Bluetooth. Without these devices, she only hears the first noises at 120 decibels, at which point it becomes unpleasant or even dangerous for the ears of those who can hear. At rock concerts on the speakers or a thunderstorm, it can bang loudly at around 120 decibels. However, a restriction from 55 decibels is considered a hearing deficit.
Albrecht-Schröder studied with the support of sign language and speech-to-text interpreters. She could read a lecturer’s lips in the lecture hall for about an hour, then it would be too exhausting for her. Albrecht-Schröder usually plays tennis with her hearing aids. This also gives her security for the body balance. Hearing aids are not allowed in tournaments. To get used to it, she pulls out the devices about an hour beforehand. “In the beginning I always have the feeling that my head is spinning. But that will happen, it’s a matter of training,” she says.
“We perceive much more than normal hearing people”
What the player has to train in addition to serves, the forehand and the backhand: not to be distracted too much. “We perceive much more than people with normal hearing,” says Albrecht-Schröder. optical. That strains the concentration and uses up the performance faster. “I absorb the external influences much more.” It is often very banal things that she notices, such as a broom hanging crookedly on the edge of the field or a spectator moving hectically. She absorbs every movement on her trainer’s face like a sponge and tries to interpret it. Marius Schroeder laughs. He tries to look as petrified as possible so as not to unnecessarily confuse his wife. However, the two have agreed on certain signs. He can’t just call out something to her.
Albrecht-Schröder also trains the “tunnel vision” that tennis stars like Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal have. “We’re trying to do that too, but it’s almost inevitable that we’ll get distracted,” she says. But you have to rebuild the tunnel vision again and again. She prefers halls because it’s usually quieter there.
Albrecht-Schröder at the award ceremony of the Deaflympics 2022.
(Photo: Anton Schneid/oh)
In Melbourne, however, the game is played outdoors, on the same facility as the regular Grand Slam, where tennis pro Alexander Zverev retired on Thursday. “It’s a tournament like any other,” says Albrecht-Schröder. She knows everything that might be different and special for hearing people from her long tournament experience. The balls will thunder onto the pitch, the players will yell as they hit, depending on their characteristics. You won’t hear any of these ball contacts yourself. That’s why the referees and line judges have to communicate differently. You can’t just yell “out” or the score across the court. The points are scored on an electronic board and with hands. Albrecht-Schröder holds her fist in the air. “That’s zero,” she says. Pointing your index finger up means 15.
The biggest difference is probably in the prize money. The hotel bill will be paid for the participants and their companions. But Albrecht-Schröder does not know what kind of victory would result. For them, being there is paramount. She will represent Germany together with her colleague Urs Breitenberger. She is honored. In 2005 Albrecht-Schröder was already in Melbourne, at the Deaflympics, she was 13 years old, won silver and dreamed of her first Grand Slam.