Rumours surrounding Tati rumble on...

Tatiana Golovin

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Oh la la! Panic is spreading in the sport’s chat rooms as news surrounding the possible retirement of popular French player Tatiana Golovin gathers pace.

One thing’s for sure, the 2008 season has been one stinker of a year for the 20-year-old. She hasn’t played a match for six months and is now occupying 249th place on the WTA Tour rankings, having peaked at No.12 in February. Acute back problems and surgery to remove an ovarian cyst in March have kept her away from the tour since she lost to Dane Caroline Wozniacki in Berlin in May.

Things were looking up recently when she was seen supporting Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at the Paris Masters. She confirmed on camera that evening that she was back in training with coach Loïc Courteau.

‘I’m still suffering from my back. I can’t tell you more. It is pretty tough but I am OK and I am still optimistic’ – Golovin

Rumours of her retirement began again on Tuesday, however, when Courteau announced he would be working with Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu for the immediate future. Courteau said his reasons for hooking up with Mathieu were that Golovin was still suffering from back problems, still wasn’t ready to start training and didn’t want to “block” him from working with other players.

Twenty-four hours later a news item appeared on French sports site Sport365 suggesting the 20-year-old’s health problems were more serious and that the Moscow-born star is considering quitting the sport because of a blood disorder.

The guessing games continued when yet another news source, Golovin-attitude.com, claimed she has been diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, a degenerative inflammatory arthritis primarily affecting the spine.

While there’s no official word on whether any or all of these rumours are true, Golovin-attitude.com claims to have received an email from the player which simply confirms more back problems.

“Unfortunately, I’m still suffering from my back [injury], so I have to stop again,” Golovin told the website. “I can’t tell you more. It is pretty tough but I am OK and I am still optimistic.”

The story took a more positive turn for fans of the French player on Thursday when a member of her entourage told the French AFP news agency that she remains “ultra-motivated” and that it would be “out of the question that she retired”.

“At 20 years of age, that would be stupid,” the spokesperson said. “She is suffering from a bad back and she’s living each day as it comes but she’s still part of French tennis.”

Golovin has often brought a touch of fun, frivolity and glamour to the tour. She hit the headlines for wearing her “lucky” red knickers during the 2007 Wimbledon Championships and was spotted puffing on a cigarette recently.

This summer she achieved celebrity WAG status by dating Arsenal footballer Sami Nasri and has also been linked with basketball player, Joakim Noah, the son of former French Open champion-turned-popstar Yannick.

The latest development in her off-court life is news that she will be posing for the 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit magazine. The shoot will take place in December in the Dominican Republic.

The WTA Tour will be a less interesting place without Tati.