These female tennis stars were failed by their feet

In the runup to the Wimbledon Championships, the tennis world has been focused on the condition of Rafael Nadal's deteriorating left foot.

But the fact is, serious lingering foot injuries are far more common on the women's professional tour. They've derailed plenty of promising tennis careers — including those of popular champions. Here are just a few of the Women's Tennis Association Tour’s biggest names who have been failed by their feet.

Martina Hingis

Hingis is perhaps the biggest “what if?” question in the history of women’s tennis. She won five Grand Slam singles titles, 13 Grand Slam doubles titles and seven Grand Slam mixed doubles titles.

Yet despite spending a total of 209 weeks as the singles world No. 1 and 90 weeks as doubles world No. 1 (and holding both No.1 rankings simultaneously for 29 weeks), just as she was entering what should have been her prime, she announced her retirement at age 22 in 2003 because of the pain from injuries (and subsequent surgeries) to her feet and ankles. In 2001, Hingis had famously sued her former sponsor, Sergio Tacchini, for $40 million for outfitting her with “defective” shoes that were “unsuitable for competition.” The lawsuit was dismissed in 2002.

Hingis eventually made brief comebacks to the WTA Tour in the mid 2000s, late 2000s and 2010s (the latter primarily as a successful doubles specialist) — but was never again among the sport’s elite singles players.   

Anna Kournikova

Concurrent to Hingis’ late 1990s-early 2000s run at the top of the sport, Anna Kournikova became arguably the most popular female tennis player ever as her worldwide celebrity transcended the sport despite her never notching a title in singles.

The blonde Russian’s combination of beauty, sex appeal, rumored romantic relationships and undeniable tennis talent made her a Madison Avenue dream at the dawn of the internet age. She reportedly made far more income off the court than she did on it.

Kournikova reached a career-high ranking of No. 8 in singles in 2000 and won 16 doubles titles (including 11 with Hingis) and was No. 1 ranked in doubles in 1999.

In 2001, she starred in singer Enrique Iglesias’ “Escape” music video and the pair have been romantic partners ever since. They have three children together — fraternal twins (son and daughter) born in 2017 and a daughter born in 2020.

But Kournikova’s tennis career was derailed by a series of injuries — including stress fractures in both feet, the second of which required surgery and kept her sidelined for much of 2001. She also battled hand and spinal injuries. By 2003, she had retired from the sport at age 22.

Leylah Fernandez

Fernandez electrified the sports world with her unlikely run to the 2021 U.S. Open Women’s Singles Finals as an unseeded teenager.

Since then — and despite winning the Monterrey Open title in Mexico earlier this year — the world’s current No. 15 ranked player has been beset by lingering foot problems. The issue came to a head in her quarterfinals loss to Martina Trevisan last month at the French Open. During the match, the 19-year-old Canadian received on-court medical treatment and — despite urgings from her father to retire during the medical timeout — gamely fought on. After the three-set defeat, she was diagnosed with a Grade 3 stress fracture on the top of her foot — an injury that her dad said will keep her out of action until August at the earliest.

Naomi Osaka

Between late 2018 and early 2021, Osaka ruled the women's game. She won four Grand Slam titles, reached a world No. 1 ranking, became the world’s most marketable female athlete and lent her voice to social justice causes.

In the last year and half, though, she’s fallen off the tennis map — due in part to famously taking a mental-health hiatus from the sport for a large chunk of the 2021 season. Now the No. 43 ranked player in the world, Osaka suffered an Achilles tendon injury earlier this year — and the lingering effects of it clearly hampered her in her first-round defeat at this year’s French Open. To prevent further aggravating the injury, she withdrew from Wimbledon before the tournament started.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: female tennis stars and their foot injuries