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Determined to bounce back

Kalyan Ashok

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

ON THE COMEBACK TRAIL: Alexandra Stevenson is attempting to get her career back on track after a three-year hiatus.

BANGALORE: A Wimbledon semifinalist in 1999 and now reduced to having qualify at the Bangalore Open. That’s the irony of sports and Alexandra Stevenson has to contend with it. The lanky American, who overcame a debilitating shoulder injury suffered in 2003, is battling her way back to regain her place under the sun in women’s tennis.

“You should never give up on your dreams and I, for one, never will,” she says.

“I had played with Venus, Serena and the rest as a junior and all my peers have gone ahead of me and are in the World’s top 10 while my injury virtually put my career in cold storage and I am determined to get back,” says Stevenson.

By 2003, Stevenson had three career titles, reaching her best ranking of No.18 in 2002, before tragedy struck. Injuries from a fall in a tournament in Linz in 2002 got aggravated and she ended up with a torn shoulder muscle in Australia the following year. It has taken three years for the shoulder to heal after surgery and rehabilitation. This will be her first full season.

She is, naturally, wistful about the three-year hiatus. “I am not a quitter and I vowed to myself that I will get to my goals, breaking into the top 100 first, then 50, 20 and 10. I hope to make it faster than you think,” she says.

Hasn’t competition become tougher than what it was between 1999 and 2002? “That period was tougher, some of the best were around then, including the Williamses, Mary Pierce, Monica Seles, Steffi Graf... I am not saying the current crop of players is any inferior, but what I was then and what I could be now is what I am looking at. I have watched big matches, followed big players’ careers and, game-wise, I am a lot smarter and serve a lot better,” she says.

‘Girl Interrupted’

She recalls that Andre Agassi, her idol, once told her she was the “girl interrupted”. “I liked his attitude, his game and what he has done as a player and a human being, charities and all.”

She is full of praise for Sania Mirza. “Pretty amazing to have someone like her in India and it is a pity that she isn’t playing here,” Stevenson says. She recalls that she had pulled out of her only meeting with Sania in a tournament in Cincinnati. “Before I took the court, the pain in the shoulder acted up and I conceded,” she says.

There is life beyond tennis for Stevenson, a Liberal Arts honours graduate from the University of Colarado who enjoys theatre, dancing and Broadway, “where life is all a song and dance.” That’s perhaps why she loves Bollywood. She says she had sat up to watch “Om Shanthi Om”.

“It was fun.”

Writing is another thing she would like to do, perhaps taking after her mother, Samantha Stevenson, a sports writer, who she is planning a book with. About a young girl and her growing pains.

Autobiographical? “I am not telling you the plot yet. Read it when its out,” she shoots back.

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