Tennis is a sport for life, and that caters to never letting the game go. Yet, one of the most important questions a player must ask him or herself is: What will I do after I’m done playing?
Many players have remained engaged with the game while still pursuing another career. Look at Andy Roddick: After retiring in 2012, he returned to the court in exhibitions and PowerShares Series events, much like fellow pros Jim Courier, Tim Henman, Andre Agassi, and Pete Sampras. Roddick is also a partial owner of Mylan World Team Tennis and provides sports analysis with Fox Sports and the BBC. This week, he’s returning to the tour to play doubles in Atlanta with Mardy Fish, who will himself be retiring after the U.S. Open.
Like Roddick, a number of former pros have headed to the commentary booth, where their playing experience is invaluable. We hear from John McEnroe and Chris Evert over the airwaves, along with Justin Gimelstob and Lindsay Davenport, who simultaneously coach. In recent years, the lure of coaching has attracted some familiar faces, including Amelie Mauresmo, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, Michael Chang, among others. Then there are those who start academies (Taylor Dent, Tim Mayotte, and Edberg), become tournament directors (Richard Krajicek, Michael Stich, Kim Clijsters), and help the tours (Gimelstob—he’s everywhere). A few chase new careers outside the game, in business (Brendan Evans), education (Agassi), and fashion (Marion Bartoli…and eventually Venus Williams?). Yevgeny Kafelinkov even got into high-stakes poker. But for the most part, former players remain involved in tennis.
But the best examples of tennis addiction may be the players who’ve chosen to come out of retirement—sometimes even twice—in order to compete again. Martina Navratilova retired on two separate occasions, finally calling it quits for good at the age of 49. Similarly, Martina Hingis retired in 2002 and 2007. Today she’s back on top of the doubles ranks.