With the money involved in professional sport and the advances in modern medical technology, tennis comebacks are almost commonplace. However, Australian tennis player, Alicia Molik’s comeback from a debilitating viral condition called vestibular neuronitis is nothing short of phenomenal.
The vestibular system controls two things essential in all sports – automatic balance and the ability to maintain visual focus on a moving object. When people first develop the condition Molik now suffers from, they usually cannot walk or even stand from a chair without falling. Fortunately there is another vestibular nerve on the other side of the body, and using one of the body’s two balance centres, it is possible to train the brain and the body to anticipate movements and regain their balance. However this means that body movements and judgement of the ball in space are learned and not purely reflexive reactions. This takes extra milliseconds which could make the difference between hitting a winner and hitting the ball out.
Considering the precision of high level tennis, it is amazing that Molik is able to return to the sport at all. Molik’s diagnosis came when she was ranked 8 in the world and on the rise. Doctors were unable to give her any guarantee of playing again, and while she will probably never fulfil the potential she had, she has comeback to win 9 of 16 matches and a current world ranking of 57. Even if she never wins another match, she has shown determination in what is without argument an extraordinary comeback.
