Fish's week in Adelaide! Wednesday, January 9, 2008
I wrote this over a week ago but it has been lost in cyber space. I will add to it shortly and let you guys know how the rehab is going.
Firstly let me say Happy New Year to all you tennis fans out there. Despite a tough start to the season, including injury and a crushing loss, I am as excited as ever to get back into action to play with Booty for the year.
I'm sure alot of you are curious as to why Eric and I are not playing together this week. While I have been getting married and relaxing on my honeymoon, Booty has been hard at work. Fresh off his workouts with his new Chichago Bears Linebacker coach, he tried to get me caught up. After four hours of practice, it was a set of box jumps that had me limping around on a bum knee. Over the last week I have seen countless physio therapists and Doctors who all have varying opinions but are all quite sure of themself.
I signed into the tournament to play with a friend of mine Rik deVoest. We have had a lot of success together and I knew he would be patient with the chance that I might not be fit to play. With my match scheduled for today, I had to find one last hope. Yesterday, a good friend of mine recomended that I see a "Witch Doctor" as he described him so I agreed to make the 30 minute drive out to this shack he called an office.
Bill looked to be about 80 years old and came toward me ever so slowly with his walker. After quickly hearing what I had to say he sternly imformed me that I would have no problem playing the next day. Up to this point I had hit 15 minutes in two weeks and if the ball was not within 2 feet of my hitting zone it progressed past my ailing knee. Bill used a device which he claimed to have made with materials that I can only guess were outdated in the 1980's. I was skeptical how paying this guy 40 dollars for 25 minutes would replace the other option that I was considering which involved an arthriscope going for about 15k.
To make a long story short, during my match today my knee was far from 100% but my witch doctor did an amazing job improving it. We went to battle with two french players Paul Henri-Mathieu and Julien Benneteau. Working in our favor was the fact that the two had played close to a three hour singles match against each other and did not look to be handling the Australia Summer.
Such was the condition of my knee that that ATP Supervisor Tom Barnes walked on court after out warm up and strongly suggested that we withdrawl and let the first altnerates play in our stead. Stubbornly I protested believing that we had a chance to win the match. Our opponents did not play well and we held two match points to win the match 6-1 6-4 but ended up falling short in a super breaker.
Tomorrow I will fly back to Sydney to try and see more knee specialists. With any luck Eric and I will be back in action next week for the Medibank International. In the meantime, please give him your support as he and Frank Dancevic try to bag another title. I thank you all in advance for your interest in what I expect to be a very exciting year for Eric and I.
I'm sure alot of you are curious as to why Eric and I are not playing together this week. While I have been getting married and relaxing on my honeymoon, Booty has been hard at work. Fresh off his workouts with his new Chichago Bears Linebacker coach, he tried to get me caught up. After four hours of practice, it was a set of box jumps that had me limping around on a bum knee. Over the last week I have seen countless physio therapists and Doctors who all have varying opinions but are all quite sure of themself.
I signed into the tournament to play with a friend of mine Rik deVoest. We have had a lot of success together and I knew he would be patient with the chance that I might not be fit to play. With my match scheduled for today, I had to find one last hope. Yesterday, a good friend of mine recomended that I see a "Witch Doctor" as he described him so I agreed to make the 30 minute drive out to this shack he called an office.
Bill looked to be about 80 years old and came toward me ever so slowly with his walker. After quickly hearing what I had to say he sternly imformed me that I would have no problem playing the next day. Up to this point I had hit 15 minutes in two weeks and if the ball was not within 2 feet of my hitting zone it progressed past my ailing knee. Bill used a device which he claimed to have made with materials that I can only guess were outdated in the 1980's. I was skeptical how paying this guy 40 dollars for 25 minutes would replace the other option that I was considering which involved an arthriscope going for about 15k.
To make a long story short, during my match today my knee was far from 100% but my witch doctor did an amazing job improving it. We went to battle with two french players Paul Henri-Mathieu and Julien Benneteau. Working in our favor was the fact that the two had played close to a three hour singles match against each other and did not look to be handling the Australia Summer.
Such was the condition of my knee that that ATP Supervisor Tom Barnes walked on court after out warm up and strongly suggested that we withdrawl and let the first altnerates play in our stead. Stubbornly I protested believing that we had a chance to win the match. Our opponents did not play well and we held two match points to win the match 6-1 6-4 but ended up falling short in a super breaker.
Tomorrow I will fly back to Sydney to try and see more knee specialists. With any luck Eric and I will be back in action next week for the Medibank International. In the meantime, please give him your support as he and Frank Dancevic try to bag another title. I thank you all in advance for your interest in what I expect to be a very exciting year for Eric and I.
1 recent comment + add comment
Jan 23, 2008 12:55 am
hey Fish, thanks for writing the blog!! I cant wait to see you and Eric playing together!