Former world No. 7 Nicole Vaidisova returns to pro tennis in Albuquerque
Nicole Vaidisova is still just 25 years old, and was once ranked No. 7 in the world.
But she's been out of the game nearly five years.
To put the Czech native's talent in perspective, she is three months older, and a contemporary of, Victoria Azarenka. When she was playing regularly back in 2007, she defeated Azarenka (who would become a world No. 1 and a Grand Slam champion) twice in straight sets.
When she was 17-18, she defeated Amélie Mauresmo of France three times – twice at Grand Slams, twice when Mauresmo was the No. 1 player in the world. She holds a 6-3 head-to-head against Jelena Jankovic. She was winning matches at the ITF 18-and-under junior level when she was 12 years old, and WTA tournaments when she was 15 years old.
She was a French Open and Australian Open semifinalist. She has six career WTA Tour titles.
And then, she was done.
Now, after a few hints that she was thinking about making a comeback, she's back.
Vaidisova was given a wild card card into this week's $75,000 ITF/USTA event in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The comeback is a long time in the making. The first glimpses appeared almost exactly a year ago, on compatriot and friend Iveta Benesova's Instagram feed, that the two were working out together. Benesova was coming back from a shoulder injury (she did, but recently retired).
At the time, Vaidisova's agent told l'Équipe that any comeback talk was premature; she was just trying to get back in shape, and the future would take care of itself.
Then, it began in earnest.
Why did she quit?
No doubt she will talk more about if it her first tournament back goes well, and she considers returning to full-time duty. There were a lot injuries, surgery, and rehab – two shoulder operations, the most recent a year ago. There were issues with her coach, who is also her stepfather.
But it always seemed as though the biggest thing was that even though Vaidisova happened to be extraordinarily good at tennis, she never liked it very much – and was almost looking for a reason to get out.
While she was still a teenager, she took up with the much-older Radek Stepanek, who had just broken his engagement to Martina Hingis.
They married in 2010 when Vaidisova was just 21, a lovely affair. And after that, there was little talk of her getting back to playing, even though certainly marriage wouldn't have really prevented her from doing so (her friend Benesova, coincidentally, married Vaidisova's former flame Jürgen Melzer of Austria in Sept. 2012).
Stepanek always deflected any queries about a potential comeback back to his wife. But she was only occasionally around (even at the Grand Slams when Stepanek played), and wasn't answering questions.
The marriage didn't last long, a little more than two years.
“There were times before when our marriage didn’t work, but I was fighting until the end to make it work. We didn’t find a way. I believe for both of us in the long run it was the best option," Stepanek told tennis writer Ravi Ubha. “I didn’t want it to happen but it’s always better to be honest.”
Stepanek quickly took up with another (even younger) countrywoman, Petra Kvitova. That didn't last, either.
Now, a year after those first rumblings, Vaidisova is ready to give it a go. She remains the prototype of the modern female player – tall (6 feet, easily), a big hitter. If she's healthy and motivated, she has plenty of time.
As the law of the draw would have it, she drew another former teenage phenom, Sesil Karatantcheva of Kazakhstan (formerly of Bulgaria), in the first round.
Karatantcheva, also 25, knows all about the pitfalls of early success. At 15, she was a French Open quarterfinalist and ranked No. 35 in the world. And then things got complicated. She's been plugging away at a comeback since returning from a two-year drug suspension at the beginning of 2009, never coming close to her original success. She got back into the top 100 during the second half of 2012, but is down to No. 191 as of the new rankings list today.
To bring things full circle, there's a 15-year-old in the qualifying draw in Albuquerque who was the recipient of a ton of excessive hype and attention last month at the U.S. Open, when she posted a terrific victory over No. 12 seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia in the first round and saw her WTA tour ranking jump nearly 800 spots.
American Cici Bellis, current world No. 1 junior, current WTA Tour ranking No. 431, defeated fellow American Karina Traxler 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of qualifying. She plays the No. 3 qualifying seed, 19-year-old Carol Zhao of Canada (about to enter her sophomore year at Stanford), in the second round today. (UPDATE: Bellis was beaten, 7-5, 6-4).
Bellis and the people around her might want to take a peek at the court where Vaidisova and Karatantcheva will be playing – just as a cautionary tale. What looks great at 15 is just the beginning of a long, twisting road that likely won't end up where you thought it would.
