| By Chris Oddo |
Photo Credit: Mark Howard |
Heroes and Zeros is Tennis Now's way of saying goodbye to the tennis week that was. This week we’ll take a look back at the first week of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami…
Hero: Alisa Kleybanova
Having had the pleasure of interviewing Alisa Kleybanova in 2010, I had already gained some invaluable first-hand knowledge of the type of woman she is. A down-to-earth up-and-comer who was completely aware of how fortunate she was to be a professional athlete, Kleybanova was kind and courteous, going out of her way to invite me into the players lounge for a chat during a busy training day.
When she announced to the world last year that she was suffering from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a dark cloud hovered over the WTA tour. Events went off without a hitch, and Grand Slams were played and won, but all the while Kleybanova had bigger battles to fight. It may not have been in the front of all our minds, but she was missed.
Not much was heard from Kleybanova for a long time, but now that’s she’s finished her treatment and been declared cancer-free, we can all appreciate the kind of sacrifice that Kleybanova had to make to be back on court.
Not only is the Russian an inspiration to all tennis players, who can now ask themselves if missing that forehand or suffering from cramps is really that bad in the scheme of things, she’s an inspiration to all athletes and people worldwide. Kleybanova, in her own simple, unassuming way, is what we all look for in our heroes. One that asks for nothing but the chance to maximize her own potential; one that burns for the competition, and one that is always willing to smile, even in the face of an incomprehensibly daunting enemy like the one she has overcome in the past year.
"It's not just about the win though, it's that I'm back on court,” said Kleybanova after her emotional first-round win over Johanna Larsson in Miami. “If I didn't win, it's not like I would have been mad. I was just happy to be playing points, feeling all the emotions again... it's something I missed a lot and it was all out there today.”
"For everyone else it's just the first round, but for me it's very emotional. I'll always remember it—it will always be the first match of my comeback."
It wasn’t so much that Kleybanova won her first match in Miami, or that she played surprisingly well in her second match against Maria Kirilenko. Just seeing her name on the draw sheet was a huge win for her, and a huge win for tennis.
Hero: Venus Williams
Can there be too many feel-good stories in the WTA? Never. Venus Williams, who was diagnosed with the debilitating autoimmune disease known as Sjogren’s Syndrome last year, has had a pretty rough run of late. She’s entered many tournaments that she’d hoped to play, then ended up having to pull out because she could not get herself into shape again.
“It’s not that you don’t have any energy, you just feel beat up,” Venus told ABC last year. “The good news for me is now I know it’s happening.”
Sjogren’s syndrome—a condition in which the bodies’ immune system attacks its own tissues—has kept Williams off the court since last summer, but like Kleybanova, Williams isn’t about to back down or let the disease keep her from competing in the sport she loves.
Three matches into her stunning comeback, Williams has defeated a world No. 2 in Petra Kvitova, and successfully come back from match point down against Aleksandra Wozniack in what was the most captivating match of the tournament yesterday.
“I don’t know what happened,” Williams said afterward.
But we do. We just witnessed a courageous woman fighting with all her might to keep the tennis dream alive.
With a pre-tournament ranking of 134 in the world due to lack of activity on the tour, Williams knows she has her work cut out for her to have a chance to play for an Olympic medal this summer.
“I tried not to let anything discourage me today,” she said after her match Sunday. “I kept thinking about how I really need this match and I need these points. I keep thinking about the Olympics—and I need my points. Whenever things look bleak, I think about the Olympics, and that keeps me motivated.”
Zero: Cancer, Sjogren’s Syndrome
Hodgkin’s and Sjogren’s have chosen two difficult women to mess with. Both were double-bageled this weekend in Miami, and both are expected to drop completely off the world rankings by the end of the week.