Meet Jan Choinski: Britain’s big-eating, German-born Wimbledon star with ballet-dancer parents
f the 87 matches scheduled here at Wimbledon today, the fifth on Court 12 features a Brit you have likely never heard of.
Jan Choinski is the son of two ballet dancers and had represented Germany before a switch of allegiance to Great Britain.
Last summer, he had tumbled outside the world’s top 600 after back-to-back injuries and surgery. Now he finds himself in the second round of Wimbledon, following an impressive 5-7, 7-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Dusan Lajovic.
It now brings him head to head against No17 seed Hubert Hurkacz, a player with whom he played doubles in the juniors at Wimbledon back in 2014.
Choinski’s switch of allegiance — his mum is British and he has had citizenship since birth — dates back to 2019.
Explaining his back story, he said: “My dad is from Poland. They were both professional ballet dancers, met in Germany, built up their life there, where I was born and raised in Koblenz.
“Since we were living in Germany, we decided to play for Germany. I met Leon Smith, the Davis Cup captain… and all of the players from Great Britain. We had some good practices, conversations.
“I said, ‘Look guys, I’ve been thinking about this for a long period. My will to change and play for Great Britain is pretty high’.”
He sent a copy of his British passport to the ATP and the switch was almost immediately sealed. He started Wimbledon at a career-high No163 in the world and he will climb further, regardless of today’s result, with points accrued from winning his opener.
His tennis is all fuelled by a diet which involves him eating 5,500 calories daily, a similar amount to the world’s strongest man, Mitchell Hooper, which he burns off from a particularly brutal training regime.
His current position is in stark contrast to this time a year ago, when he was struggling with mononucleosis and Covid, and ranked a lowly 650th in the world.
Jan Choinski is fuelled by a diet which involves him eating 5,500 calories daily
/ Getty ImagesIt had followed surgery on his hip and a year-long lay-off caused by a shoulder issue, after which he locked himself in the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton to regain his fitness and form.
“I was 26 at the time, had almost dropped all my ranking points, came back from two years of being out, two years of being injured, two surgeries,” he said. “I just never wanted to leave tennis. I just thought I’ve got more in myself and I want to show it.
“My attitude is never to really think that’s it. I never doubted it for one second. My love for the sport is just so big, also my love for getting better, seeing progress day by day.”
