FIVE TIMES A PLAYER RETURNED FROM SERIOUS INJURY TO WIN A MAJOR

Serena Williams holds the 2012 Wimbledon (Getty/Glyn Kirk)

In the NBA last week, Boston Celtics star Jason Tatum went down with a ruptured Achilles, which meant the defending champions' season came to an abrupt end.

Due to the serious nature of the injury, it's most likely that the next time he plays a game will be in October 2026.

Even when he returns, there is no guarantee he will ever be the same, with numerous examples of athletes having Achilles issues and never reaching the levels they once hit.

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So, as a therapeutic coping mechanism (and to give me some hope) as a Celtics fan, I thought it would be perfect timing to revisit five tennis players who suffered serious injuries throughout their careers and not only returned to the court, but would go on to win at least one Slam.

Monica Seles

As sports fans, we are conditioned to think that the two worst injuries an athlete can suffer are a torn Achilles and a torn ACL, mainly due to the fact that both of them typically take around one year to fully recover from (although advanced science and technology have helped speed up recovery).

But when it comes to the most horrific injury we’ve seen on a tennis court, a torn Achilles or ACL can't even be compared to what Monica Seles went through.

In 1993, Seles was playing in a quarter-final at the Citzen Cup in Hamburg, Germany, against Magdalena Maleeva.

At the time, Seles was ranked No.1 in the world, so it should come as no surprise that she had won the first set and was up 4-3 in the second going into a changeover break.

In what was standard practice for tennis players, Seles took a seat and was about to take a drink before heading back out onto the court.

In what is now one of, if not the most infamous fan-to-athlete interaction, a spectator had run to the edge of the court and, with a knife, stabbed Seles in the back.

The knife had gone 1.3 centimetres between her shoulder blade and was only millimetres away from her spine.

Seles was rushed to the hospital, where surgeons discovered that the attack had damaged muscles and tissue surrounding her left shoulder blade, and while serious, she was expected to make a full recovery.

However, the mental toll of this injury was far greater than the physical, and it took two years and three months for her to play another professional match.

Given that at the time she was ranked No.1, had won nine majors and was just 19 years old, Seles had the potential to become one of the greatest players ever, but after a shocking event like this, no one really knew if she would get back to those heights again.

But only a few weeks after making her return to professional tennis, Seles had reached the 1985 US Open final, and while she would lose in three sets, only a few months later, she not only won the Australian Open, but she dominated, dropping just one set en route to her 10th major.

Unfortunately, she only reached one more major final before retiring in 2003, but from having the most tragic injury and experience an athlete could have, to winning a major three years later, all after taking two years off, is a remarkable comeback.

Roger Federer

When you have a career as long as Roger Federer, it's only natural that some serious injuries occur.

With the constant grit and grind you put on your body year in and year out on the tennis court, eventually your body gives in.

Just in this case, Federer's body didn't fail him on the court, rather in 2016 he tore his meniscus in his left knee while putting his body through… bathing his twin daughters?

It's crazy to think that with his longevity, this is how his first major injury occurred, but I'm not one to talk, as after years of playing rugby, an ultimate frisbee game in a school P.E class was my downfall, as it led to a ruptured ACL and torn meniscus.

So really, these incidental injuries can happen to anyone.

What wasn't normal was the lingering effects Federer had to deal with after the surgery.

He attempted to return in July (only five months post-operation), but when playing in some of the lead-up tournaments to the French Open, his knee was not feeling right, forcing him to skip Roland-Garros, in what was his first missed major since 1999.

Federer tried to push through the pain and play Wimbledon, but he would fall short, losing in five sets in the semi-finals.

After getting knocked out, he decided to take the rest of the year off to fully rehabilitate his knee, but at nearly 35, there were questions about whether he could ever get back to the Federer we knew.

Six months, that's how long it took to answer the question, as Federer would win the Australian Open, taking out Rafael Nadal in five sets.

It wasn't just one last boost of energy before the sun set on his career, either, as Federer would go on to win Wimbledon in the same year, followed by defending his Australian Open trophy by winning it again in 2018.

Instead of putting ice on his knee and enjoying baths, Federer came back just as good as he was before, winning three more majors, all above the age of 35, which is why this bounce back from injury is so remarkable.

Serena Williams

Similar to Federer, Serena Williams hadn't had to deal with too many major injuries in her career, and also, just like Federer, her first one didn't come on the court, but rather in a restaurant.

In July 2010, while out in Germany, Williams stepped on some broken glass, which caused lacerated tendons and damaged tissue in her foot.

She underwent surgery, and while under the knife, her foot was more severely damaged than originally thought.

To make matters worse, Williams required a second operation as she was healing much slower than expected.

Just when you think it couldn't possibly get any worse from here, it did, as she suffered a blood clot in her lungs due to the medication she was prescribed.

So, to recap, she went from a standard night out to stepping on glass to having two surgeries on her foot, to then being in a life-threatening situation due to the blood clots, all within eight months.

Understandably, this led to Williams taking an extended rest, where no one knew when she would get back to playing tennis, and if she did, would she return to the path she was on of becoming one of the greatest tennis players ever, or would this be too much to overcome?

Williams would return in June 2011, making the fourth-round of Wimbledon and the final of the US Open, but it was midway through 2012 when she got her groove back.

In 2012, nearly two years after the injury occurred, Williams had won her first major post-injury, defeating Agnieszka Radwańska at Wimbledon.

Only one month later and at the same venue, Williams had won the singles and the doubles gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics. She quickly followed it up by winning the US Open a little over a month later.

All up, post-injury Williams won 10 grand slam titles and two gold medals to well and truly prove that she was able to put the injury and life-threatening illness behind her.

Rafael Nadal

Unlike Federer, Rafael Nadal has a long list of serious injuries he has had to deal with throughout his career, most notably his knee tendinitis in not just one, but both knees.

It first flared up in 2007, but he pushed through the pain, only for it to get worse, forcing him to miss Wimbledon in 2009.

Not only did he return from the tendinitis, once he came back, he dominated, where in 2010 he won the French Open, Wimbledon and most importantly, his first US Open, meaning at just 24, he had achieved a career Golden Slam.

In 2012, he had another knee issue, this time Patellar tendinitis and Hoffa's syndrome, forcing him to sit seven months on the sidelines, but yet again, when he did return in 2013, he would win the French and US Open.

Amazingly, it wasn't just his knees causing issues throughout his career, as in 2005, he was diagnosed with a foot injury called Mueller-Weiss Syndrome.

Once more, he was able to play through it, but in 2021, a major flare-up caused Nadal to miss the second half of the year.

When he returned in 2022, he would win the Australian Open in five sets against Daniil Medvedev, despite trailing two sets and a break.

Going into Roland-Garros that year, Nadal would be forced to use nerve-numbing injections to ease the pain in his foot, and clearly, they worked as he ended up winning what would be his last major.

Even though Nadal dominated for nearly two decades, it was not without major injuries, but every time he was forced to sit out, he would always come back and get his hands on another trophy.

Novak Djokovic

It's only fitting that all of the 'big three' men's players of the last 20 years had to deal with major injuries, and this time it’s Novak Djokovic, who in 2016 had been dealing with an elbow issue in his right arm.

He tried to play through it, but by 2017, it had started to severely impact his serve and forehand, and eventually, he was forced to retire hurt from the Wimbledon quarter-finals.

He would take the rest of the year off as he tried treatments that did not involve surgery, and after six months, he would return, only to exit Melbourne Park in the fourth-round.

Eventually, Djokovic would give in and have the operation, where he openly said that it took an emotional toll on him.

It clearly impacted him, as when he returned once more, he looked a completely different player, as he was knocked out early in Indian Wells.

Despite saying he was in no pain, he had lost his confidence and swagger, something that led him to contemplate taking another break from the game or even retiring altogether.

Of course, we know not only did he not quit, but he came back better than ever, starting in 2018, winning Wimbledon.

He then followed it up by winning the US Open later that year, then the Australian Open to begin 2019, and then again, he won at the famous All England Club against Federer, in one of the greatest Grand Slam finals ever.

All up, he won 12 majors after his elbow surgery, claiming at least two of each major, and arguably, post-2018, he became an even better player.

Even when a professional athlete suffers a serious injury, it's more than possible to not only make a comeback but to be even better than before.

So, maybe I do have some hope for Jayson Tatum after all.

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