Molik eases back into tour after illness

Molik eases back into tour after illness

Bruce Emond, The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali

As Mariana Diaz-Oliva served for the first set in Tuesday's
night match at the Wismilak International, Alicia Molik could
have been forgiven for having that here-we-go-again feeling.

Since her return to the WTA tour last month after a five-month
hiatus due to illness, the Australian had yet to win a set in
both of her first-round losses. Finally seeing the ball better
under the lights, the third seed buckled down against the
Argentinean and came through in a 7-6 (6), 6-3 victory.

It was a welcome confidence booster, although the 24 year old
is not getting ahead of herself in setting a timeline for
returning to the superb form she enjoyed in the latter part of
2004 and early 2005.

"That is what I project to other people, but I'm still hard on
myself," Molik told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday of her
magnanimous attitude to the long, hard road back to form. "But I
need to cut myself some slack."

You can't expect yourself to be a machine."

Molik tasted the highs in 2004, winning in Stockholm, Zurich
and Luxembourg, and chalking up wins over Maria Sharapova, Patty
Schnyder and Anastasia Myskina, the latter in the bronze medal
match at the Athens Olympics.

At the Australian Open in January, Molik beat Venus Williams
and then ran Lindsay Davenport close in the quarterfinals before
the American eked out a 9-7 third-set victory. Her world ranking
rose to a career-high of 8 in February, with commentators saying
that her powerful serve (she is 1.82 meters tall) and all-court
game made her a Grand Slam title contender.

And then she got sick.

In Charleston at one of the traditional U.S. claycourt
tournaments in March, Molik woke up feeling strange. She compares
the symptoms -- blurred vision, a lack of focus, loss of balance
-- of vestibular neuronitis, a viral infection of the inner ear,
to feeling drunk all day.

"Last summer and the Australian Open were like a fairytale,
but just when you think you're invincible, something brings you
back down to earth. I started realizing that there are other
things than winning, it's not all about sport, but your health
too."

She spent the recovery time with her family and friends back
in her hometown of Adelaide, where she grew up playing in the
same club as Lleyton Hewitt.

"Having the time led me to lead a normal life. It was fun
getting into a routine, cooking, going to football games, it's
nice compared to living in a tennis bubble."

She comes from the long tradition of Australian tennis, but
talent has been thin on the ground in the women's game since the
heyday of the 1960s and 1970s, the era of Margaret Court and
Evonne Goolagong Cawley.

After such a long wait for the new great hope, a leading
Australian women's magazine profiled Molik earlier this year and
gushed that she was poised to overtake the great Court.

She concedes that it's a bit premature to be comparing her to
a woman who won the Grand Slam of the four majors in 1970 -- she
wants to be acknowledged for her own achievements.

"I'm walking to my own beat, I can't be compared to them
because I haven't done what they did. But I'm mixing it with the
best of them, and I want to show what I can do."

She feels her best bet for a Grand Slam title is the
Australian Open.

" I really enjoy playing there, the crowd gives me a lift, I
like it being hot and it's in my own backyard. It couldn't be
better for me."