Tennis update: Long road back for Taylor Dent
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INDIAN WELLS -- It’s a funny thing about second acts in sports.
You hear the words ‘career-ending injury’ and, obviously, they are sobering ones, bringing home a sense of finality. But there have been two cases in the news this week to counter that concept.
Gary Roberts of the Tampa Bay Lightning officially retired Tuesday, having completed a remarkable second act to his hockey career. He supposedly was done after playing 585 games in the NHL. Missed about a year from the sport after two surgeries couldn’t help his cervical foraminal stenosis. But he came back to play 639 more games.
Then I had a chance to take in an uplifting story involving Taylor Dent, chatting with him for about half an hour Saturday in the players’ lounge at Indian Wells Tennis Garden. Dent defeated Diego Junqueira of Argentina, 6-1, 7-6 (3), Friday in the first round of the BNP Paribas Open and will play Jurgen Melzer of Austria on Sunday on Court 2.
Because Dent grew up in Orange County, I’ve known him longer and better than his peers, Andy Roddick, Mardy Fish and James Blake. It’s a measure of his popularity and the appeal of his eye-catching serve-and-volley game that he was still accepting props from other players for his win Friday. Dent was out of the game for a good part of 2006 and all of 2007 with back problems (fractured vertebrae) that required two surgeries and, ultimately, a spinal fusion.
‘The guy I played yesterday, I’m sure he’s heard as much about me as I’ve heard about him,’ said Dent, who is 27. ‘I see some of these guys, ‘Oh man, there’s another guy that’s come up since I’ve been gone.’ I don’t know who he is. I don’t know his name. It’s definitely a little eerie at times but then you see guys like Fish and Roddick and Blake and the old crew and it brings back some fun memories.’
His wife, Jenny Hopkins, who was once on the tour, was not on hand to witness the victory, but his parents, both former tour players, were at the match. In 2002, Dent won a grass-court tournament in Newport, R.I., joining his father Phil in the record book to become the first father and son to win ATP titles in the Open era. Phil Dent was an Australian Open finalist in 1974.
After one of the surgeries, Taylor was in a three-quarters body cast for nine months. ‘I’m in bed 23.9 hours a day,’ he recalled. ‘After a five-minute walk, I was exhausted. Apart from that, I stayed in bed, taking pain pills and trying to play video games to take my mind off the whole situation.’
Later, he started teaching and coaching tennis and even dabbled in TV commentary but didn’t enjoy it.
‘I didn’t really announce my retirement but it was pretty much set in stone,’ Dent said. ‘The doctors said realistically you can’t hope to get back to that level. I’m no expert. So I relied on what the doctor said. I didn’t officially come out and announce it, just in case.’
Just in case culminated in an emotional victory Friday.
‘I think everybody felt the win as much as I did,’ Dent said. ‘Everybody was pulling for me, cheering. I got goosebumps after match point. I’m not a very emotional person at all on the court. But when the crowd was cheering, I heard some cheers, ‘he’s back.’ My voice started to quiver a little bit and I was getting emotional out there.’
You don’t fully appreciate something until it is taken away or comes under threat.
‘Yesterday, it hit home how far I’ve come. And how my back was against the wall to even play again,’ Dent said. ‘Just stuff like that. When you think about the big picture, for me, it’s like, ‘Wow. I’ve really come a long way.’
‘And I’m so close to being a better player than I was before.’
-Lisa Dillman
