Martina Hingis related article i liked.

So this may be an "old" article but i hadnt read it before and now that i have gone through it i like it immensly; so much so that i am now posting it.

Hingis can relate to Agassi

Martina Hingis knows how Andre Agassi hurts.

Three years ago, she was in straits similar to those he is stuck in now. She was in pain. She was losing. She still loved tennis, but the game seemed to have betrayed her. It broke her body and mocked her identity.

At age 22, she declared that she was finished.

At age 35, Agassi isn't ready to retire.

Their careers continued to go in opposite directions Friday at the NASDAQ-100 Open. Agassi, immobilized by spasms in his bad back, withdrew from the tournament without hitting a shot. Hingis, progressing on a comeback that even Lance Armstrong would admire, defeated China's Tian Tian Sun 6-3, 6-2.

Their respective places in the sport accentuate the reckoning of mind and body that athletes must confront sooner or later. Mentally, Agassi is more insightful than ever. Physically, he's a wreck. Hingis has recaptured the clever flair that made her No. 1 for 209 weeks as a teenager, and has added muscle and speed. But after the 2002 season, when her feet failed her, she realized her head wasn't in it, either.

''I always liked the game, but when you have certain difficulties with your body and you can't play the game you want to play, it's no fun,'' she said.

Agassi is miserable right now. After three agonizing days of practice, he decided to leave the event he's won six times rather than embarrass himself.

''I love this game and I want to try and do it,'' Agassi said. ``I not only want to play, I want to win. I'm not really in a position to do that, so it's not fair to myself or the fans of tennis.''

OLD MAN SYMPTOMS

A spinal condition called spondyloisthesis, combined with a bulging disk, make Agassi feel like an old man. If dog years are multiples of seven, then athlete years are approximately multiples of two. Which makes Agassi 35 going on 70 and, next month, 72.

He did a lot of hand-wringing and scalp-kneading as he talked about his uncertain future.

''It seems pretty dark at the moment,'' he said. ``When my body is right, there's still a considerable amount left in me. I believe that.''

We would hate to see one of the world's most beloved athletes drag this out like a boxer. Or like Michael Jordan. But Agassi is only six months removed from a magnificent run to the U.S. Open final, where he lost to Roger Federer. His back is telling him that was just an illusion.

''It gets in your mind,'' he said. ``You know you're not happy.''

SMILING AGAIN

As for Hingis, the grin is back. She grins when she hits a drop shot. She grins when she hits the ball in the net. She's glad to be here.

After several surgeries on heel spurs, Hingis gave up tennis for horseback riding and TV commentating. She had also been eclipsed by the power players, and was losing regularly to Jennifer Capriati, Serena and Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport.

But look what happened. Since her January comeback, Hingis has risen from No. 349 to No. 24 while the Williams sisters and Davenport have gone down with injuries and Capriati delays her return from last year's shoulder surgery. Hingis left women's tennis when it was at a peak, and she returned when she realized that due to attrition and mediocrity, the number of contenders actually decreased. As Kim Clijsters put it, ``There is no Ms. Federer.''

It's great to see Hingis playing again. She hasn't lost her volley or her touch. And although it seems like she's older, because she won Wimbledon at 16, she's only 25. But now she understands the limited court-life of a tennis player. At an age when most people are just finding their stride in their careers, athletes are finished with sports. Her career was ended prematurely, and this time she's not taking it for granted.

''When you're 17, 18, you think it's ongoing, but it's not,'' she said. ``Now I try to do everything possible not to get any injuries. Be more disciplined. Go to bed early -- which is what I was fighting with my mom about all the time before.''

The cases of Hingis and Agassi should make the leaders of the sport think about how they can stop it from self-destructing. The injury inventory, just at NASDAQ alone, is starting to sound like reports from the NFL. Knees, shoulders, elbows, backs -- and then the mind gives out in frustration.

The season is too long. The players are locked into a 10-month globe-trotting marathon. The racquets are straining the capacity of human joints. Both the calendar and the equipment need regulation.

Hingis still deals with chronic pain, and the years she can't get back, while Agassi gets another shot and another pill in the hopes of one last run.

source:

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/columnists/linda_robertson/14182755.htm