Post by TennisHack on May 4, 2007 0:59:08 GMT -5
From Bob Larson:
How's It Going?
Remember earlier this year, when Mirjana Lucic returned to action at Memphis and picked up a win at Indian Wells and said she was back to stay?
Guess who hasn't played since. Not even though the Tour is on clay, which was pretty definitely Lucic's favorite surface. Sure, she needed wildcards into her first two events, and will need one more -- but come on, she can get a wildcard into any Challenger on the globe.
Not an encouraging sign.
We thought we' spend a few minutes looking at some players who have been vowing comebacks from this and that, and see how they're coming along.
Mirjana Lucic. Might as well start with her, since she was the one who set us thinking about this.
Her last WTA win before her disappearance was at Roland Garros 2002. But she didn't just vanish after that; she made it through qualifying a few more times that year, and didn't play her last WTA match until Indian Wells 2003. And she didn't stop playing entirely even then -- she took part in the Dothan Challenger in 2004 and 2005.
It wasn't injury that cost her, after all. It was one of those split-with-her-crazy-father stories: She lost her motivation, and ended up losing her fitness, too.
Can she come back? She's 25, and went five years between wins -- and you still wonder about her head; an interviewer reported that she's afraid to go in the sea, for instance, for fear of sharks.
A very sad story.
Alexandra Stevenson. Poor Stevenson is almost a comeback machine. Play three months, get hurt, watch her ranking fall another 25% or so, try a comeback, repeat. In her case, there is no problem with determination; she keeps trying. But fitness was never her big thing, and all those long layoffs aren't helping.
This year, she has played eight sundry events: Three Challenger qualifying draws, two Challengers, and three WTA qualifying events. Her record? 1-8. The last three of those losses, to be sure, were on clay. But she hasn't won a WTA match since Philadelphia 2003. She seems to be caught in a cleft stick: If she manages to get in a reasonable number of matches (presumably by playing on the fastest courts she can find), will she be able to stay healthy? But if she can't get any matches in, how can she get back in shape?
Jelena Dokic. Remember when they had "deprogrammers" to deal with people rescued from cults? They went out of favor for some very good reasons -- but Dokic may be an argument for bringing them back. Tennis players often are a little bit loony (and, before you write in, please note that the author is also pretty wacko) -- but Dokic seems to have the worst sort of problem: The "I need a father figure" syndrome. Having broken away from her biological father, she now is lurching between boyfriend/coaches and sane people. Last year, she vowed to try a careful comeback, playing at $10K and $25K events until she could get her game together.
It's not happening. She did make the quarterfinal of the Darmstadt event last July, before losing to a player ranked #219, but she hasn't even managed to match that since. Her last win at a WTA event was at Rabat 2005. Her last win at a reasonably high-level Challenger was at the Martina Franca $50K event in August 2005. She seems to have been used for most of her life. Let's hope she hasn't been used up.
Evgenia Linetskaya. Linetskaya probably doesn't ring as many bells as Lucic or Dokic or Stevenson, because she didn't have that One Big Event -- plus she was Just Another Young Russian. But her rise was ballistic, in early 2004. She was #94 entering Sydney that year. She made it to #37 by the time Miami rolled around. She hovered around #40 until the U. S. Open. She hasn't won a match since.
Why? Two reasons, it appears. One was a wrist injury. The other is more shadowy, but it appears that, yes, she had a father problem. She was out for about a year, and only recently has been making a comeback attempt.
She didn't make the mistake some have made, of trying to come back too high up the ladder. She started down at the $10K events, and managed to pick up 22 points (which is significant at that level). And she is still only 20. Maybe there is hope. But -- well, she hasn't added any points in the last month, which is worrying.
(In the department of Truly Strange Ideas, has the WTA ever thought about creating a mentoring program for players who break away from their abusive -- or at least crazy -- fathers? Mary Pierce did it with success, but she is one of the very few....)
Let's give one last thumbnail sketch, though it doesn't involve a phenom flaming out. Maybe that makes it a little happier.
Marta Marrero. By the standards we've been establishing, this is almost a happy ending. Marrero "merely" was injured for a very long time; she didn't play a WTA match from Modena 2005 to Bogota of this year (though she did have a few Challenger matches in there).
It hasn't been a great comeback so far; she lost that match at Bogota, and mostly in the Challengers, too, though she did earn a win last week at the Torrent $50K in her native Spain. Her ranking remains in the pits, but it takes time to come back from a layoff like that.
How's It Going?
Remember earlier this year, when Mirjana Lucic returned to action at Memphis and picked up a win at Indian Wells and said she was back to stay?
Guess who hasn't played since. Not even though the Tour is on clay, which was pretty definitely Lucic's favorite surface. Sure, she needed wildcards into her first two events, and will need one more -- but come on, she can get a wildcard into any Challenger on the globe.
Not an encouraging sign.
We thought we' spend a few minutes looking at some players who have been vowing comebacks from this and that, and see how they're coming along.
Mirjana Lucic. Might as well start with her, since she was the one who set us thinking about this.
Her last WTA win before her disappearance was at Roland Garros 2002. But she didn't just vanish after that; she made it through qualifying a few more times that year, and didn't play her last WTA match until Indian Wells 2003. And she didn't stop playing entirely even then -- she took part in the Dothan Challenger in 2004 and 2005.
It wasn't injury that cost her, after all. It was one of those split-with-her-crazy-father stories: She lost her motivation, and ended up losing her fitness, too.
Can she come back? She's 25, and went five years between wins -- and you still wonder about her head; an interviewer reported that she's afraid to go in the sea, for instance, for fear of sharks.
A very sad story.
Alexandra Stevenson. Poor Stevenson is almost a comeback machine. Play three months, get hurt, watch her ranking fall another 25% or so, try a comeback, repeat. In her case, there is no problem with determination; she keeps trying. But fitness was never her big thing, and all those long layoffs aren't helping.
This year, she has played eight sundry events: Three Challenger qualifying draws, two Challengers, and three WTA qualifying events. Her record? 1-8. The last three of those losses, to be sure, were on clay. But she hasn't won a WTA match since Philadelphia 2003. She seems to be caught in a cleft stick: If she manages to get in a reasonable number of matches (presumably by playing on the fastest courts she can find), will she be able to stay healthy? But if she can't get any matches in, how can she get back in shape?
Jelena Dokic. Remember when they had "deprogrammers" to deal with people rescued from cults? They went out of favor for some very good reasons -- but Dokic may be an argument for bringing them back. Tennis players often are a little bit loony (and, before you write in, please note that the author is also pretty wacko) -- but Dokic seems to have the worst sort of problem: The "I need a father figure" syndrome. Having broken away from her biological father, she now is lurching between boyfriend/coaches and sane people. Last year, she vowed to try a careful comeback, playing at $10K and $25K events until she could get her game together.
It's not happening. She did make the quarterfinal of the Darmstadt event last July, before losing to a player ranked #219, but she hasn't even managed to match that since. Her last win at a WTA event was at Rabat 2005. Her last win at a reasonably high-level Challenger was at the Martina Franca $50K event in August 2005. She seems to have been used for most of her life. Let's hope she hasn't been used up.
Evgenia Linetskaya. Linetskaya probably doesn't ring as many bells as Lucic or Dokic or Stevenson, because she didn't have that One Big Event -- plus she was Just Another Young Russian. But her rise was ballistic, in early 2004. She was #94 entering Sydney that year. She made it to #37 by the time Miami rolled around. She hovered around #40 until the U. S. Open. She hasn't won a match since.
Why? Two reasons, it appears. One was a wrist injury. The other is more shadowy, but it appears that, yes, she had a father problem. She was out for about a year, and only recently has been making a comeback attempt.
She didn't make the mistake some have made, of trying to come back too high up the ladder. She started down at the $10K events, and managed to pick up 22 points (which is significant at that level). And she is still only 20. Maybe there is hope. But -- well, she hasn't added any points in the last month, which is worrying.
(In the department of Truly Strange Ideas, has the WTA ever thought about creating a mentoring program for players who break away from their abusive -- or at least crazy -- fathers? Mary Pierce did it with success, but she is one of the very few....)
Let's give one last thumbnail sketch, though it doesn't involve a phenom flaming out. Maybe that makes it a little happier.
Marta Marrero. By the standards we've been establishing, this is almost a happy ending. Marrero "merely" was injured for a very long time; she didn't play a WTA match from Modena 2005 to Bogota of this year (though she did have a few Challenger matches in there).
It hasn't been a great comeback so far; she lost that match at Bogota, and mostly in the Challengers, too, though she did earn a win last week at the Torrent $50K in her native Spain. Her ranking remains in the pits, but it takes time to come back from a layoff like that.