Foot Fault!

After nearly five years of chronic back issues, it appears the sad career of 24 year-old Agnes Szavay will likely be coming to an end as she makes the final decision between risky surgery or retirement. So says the Hungarian media:

According to the news Szavay will decide within days: she’ll choose to either continue her career (despite) the risks associated with surgery or a more relaxed and pain-free life. True, for the time being she cannot even imagine what to do with his life without the sport (she has played) since the age of five.

The timeline of Szavay’s career - if her brief cameo on the WTA can even be called such a thing - is borderline depressing. It was 2007 that she broke through on the WTA as a bright 18 year old with huge talent and even huger, flowing swings with a penchant for delicate variety. She announced herself as even a possible slam champion after that meteoric rise from outside of the top 200 in January 2007 to number 20 by year’s end, reaching a slam quarterfinal and capturing one-and-a-half (the half being her retirement to Kuznetsova whilst a set up in the New Haven final) Tier II titles plus a further lower WTA title in the process.

Already by 2008 she was forced to re-work and shorten her service motion due to the emergence of these back issues, robbing her of one of her prime weapons. After continued back pain in the years that followed, it was in 2011 that she broke down in tears whilst explaining to reporters that the vertebral stress fractures in her back had been discovered too late. Since then, her only presence on the WTA has been only a couple of failed comeback attempts - most recently last year between the London Olympics and US Open. The option of surgery has been on the table since 2011 but she was rightfully hesitant and has since attempted just about every other possible avenue of recovery.

Now it seems surgery is the only option. Despite the great loss her presence and beautiful style of tennis is to the WTA, I personally hope she decides to hang up her racket if there is any possibility that the surgery could worsen her back and have repercussions in her regular life. But, hey, my name isn’t Agnes Szavay. We’ll soon see which decision she comes to.