Dent back in the big time after horror injury
Taylor Dent
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With plenty to keep us occupied on the ATP and WTA Tours, it’s not often we feature coverage of the Challenger Circuit here on tennishead – especially not one that ended over a week ago.
But while the world’s best slug it out in London this week, Taylor Dent’s victory in Knoxville last Sunday – followed by his run to the final in Champaign, Illinois – has cemented Taylor Dent’s year-end ranking inside the top 100, banishing memories of the nightmare back injury in 2006 that left him unable to walk.
The 28-year-old Californian began the year as the world No.865, but has leapt over 700 places to No.77 this week after featuring in three of the four majors and making the third round of the US Open – a remarkable feat for a man who, prior to this year, had not featured on the Tour since 2006.
After leaving the University of Southern California, Dent made a promising start to his career with four ATP Tour titles between 2002 and 2003, his booming serve – only three men have served faster – and serve-volley game standing him apart among the baseliners of the modern game.
Prone to more tolerable back injuries, Dent was forced to pull out of the 2006 Rotterdam tournament after feeling a ‘disturbing twinge’ in his back. When the pain failed to subside he had it checked out, only to learn he had suffered a fractured vertebrae.
Three operations later, and with a series of bars and screws inserted around a bone growth compound in the fractured area, Dent was left bed ridden for 23 hours a day, living in constant pain that would not subside for months.
But in testament to his character, Dent has not only found the strength to return to tennis, but has flown back up the rankings in search of bettering his career high No.21 ranking.
Dent’s comeback year involved a brief cameo at the Australian Open and an equally ineffectual, if sentimental, first round exit at Wimbledon. But after earning a wildcard entry into the US Open, Dent knocked out Spaniards Feliciano Lopez and Ivan Navarro to win through to the third round.
A dream of surpassing his fourth round best was abruptly blocked by Andy Murray who defeated him 6-3 6-2 6-2 in comfortable fashion, but Dent’s performances signaled a return to the stage that neither he, nor anyone else, could ever have imagined.
Surging a further 28 places in November alone, Dent is well on the way to a return to the upper echelons of the game – a far cry from the life of a man who was close to depression at the thought of not being able to live a normal life, let alone one as a professional tennis player.
“I had to be careful”, Dent said at the US Open in reference to the dangers of depression. “I just had to keep myself busy with stuff I was interested in.”
Now, if nothing else, he has tennis once more. And by the way 2009 has gone, he could have tennis for some time to come.
