As Justine Henin dominated the world, for a few fleeting weeks the second best player around was a 19-year-old from France named Tatiana Golovin. Golovin grew up at Florida’s famous Bollettieri academy from the age of seven, in perpetual competition with Maria Sharapova. Golovin saw a parade of doctors and was eventually diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, a chronic inflammatory spinal disease. “The only thing I knew to do better than someone else was to play tennis. There is triumph in the simple fact that, 11 years after quitting, she was able to authentically feel like a tennis player once again.

Source: The Guardian August 02, 2020 13:30 UTC