Remember Nicole Vaidisova? The former teenage tennis sensation who somewhere around 2006/07 was teetering of the edge of Grand Slam success? Ever wonder where she went?
Well, the good news is she’s still playing tennis. In fact, the news is that she’ll be playing at the WTA’s Memphis Tournament, courtesy of a wildcard, next week. But the bad news is the Czech’s a long, long way off the form that took her to the semis at two majors at the tender age of 17.
Vaidisova’s fall from the top has been rapid. From a rankings high of world No. 7 in May 2007, the 6ft blonde finished 2008 as world No. 40. In 2009, Vaidisova went into rankings freefall to finish the season ranked as world No. 186. She’s now the world No. 192.
Injury provides at least part of the explanation for that, as the Czech battled a wrist injury last year but even so, there was little to celebrate on court. Vaidasova finished the year with 11 wins and 17 losses – the highlights being consecutive victories over Alona Bondarenko, a player ranked around the Top 30, in March.
So far this year, Vaidasova has played an ITF tournament in Lutz, Florida, where she lost in the first round. That was followed by another first-round loss at another ITF event, this time in Midland, Michigan, to world No. 117 Aranxta Rus where timing seemed to be a major problem for Vaidasova. It was the Czech’s 11th loss in 14 matches.
It’s hard to reconcile the teenager with the powerful serve and pounding groundstrokes that defeated players of the calibre of Amelie Mauresmo and Venus Williams with the 20-year-old who couldn’t even muster a fight against a player ranked 578th in the world in the qualifiers for Stanford in 2009. Still the wrist injury, which Vaidasova apparently was unaware of for some time during the year, offers an explanation of sorts.
The slide began before that, though, back in 2008, and there are some in cyberspace who would point the finger of blame for Vaidisova’s disappearance from the top of the tennis tree squarely in the direction of Radek Stepanek, the boyfriend 11 years her senior. That line of reasoning though might just be the conjecture out there on the message boards, rather than anything based in reality.
Thrown into the mix was a move away from her long-term coach, stepfather Ales Kodat to Britain’s David Felgate, though that lasted less than a year before the player was back under Kodat’s coaching wing. In another attempt to revitalise her flagging career, Vaidasova has recently employed Eric van Harpen - who has worked with both Maria Kirilenko and Anna Kournikova - as her new coach.
Now, regardless of the reasons for her fall from the top, the pressing issue is whether Vaidasova can turn things around and begin the long climb back and again take her place among the tennis elite.
The wildcard entry to Memphis could be a good place to start. Back when Vaidasova was a teenager with the Midas touch, she reached the semi-finals of the 2005 tournament. But half a decade later, the future isn’t looking quite as golden. And on the evidence shown in 2009, and at the start of 2010, a sudden and dramatic turnaround in her fortunes doesn’t seem likely here.
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