Australian Open Betting / Guy McCrea / 07 January 2010 /

Justine Henin's recent return to the WTA Tour is just the latest in a long line of comebacks made by high-profile female players in recent years. Why do they do it, asks Guy McCrea?

It's definitely all the rage right now. But the 'second career' isn't a new trend in women's tennis. It actually goes way back to the days of Margaret Court. The legendary Australian quit tennis at 24 to get married and move back home (sound familiar?) after 13 grand slam victories. But Court then returned just a year later in 1970 to win all four major titles in a single season. In all, she had amassed an incredible 24 Grand Slam singles crowns when she finally retired for good back in 1977.

If like me, you're looking for a pattern behind all this, a single explanation for a career break - then tough luck, because there isn't one. Female players 'retire' for a whole host of reasons. Many, such as Justine Henin (currently trading on Betfair at [6.0] to win the 2010 Australian Open), simply become burnt out after spending most of their life travelling on the tennis treadmill.

It is a greater issue in the women's game because junior girls can make an impact on the professional circuit sooner than boys can. A powerful physique is not as much of a pre-requisite for success. But as a result, women can burn out quicker too - despite WTA regulations that restrict a teenage girl's professional tournament play more than in the past.

The desire to start a family can also be a factor. Kim Clijsters (around 5.1 to triumph in Melbourne) had devoted a decade to professional tennis when she decided to do just that. Lindsay Davenport was another former world number one who decided the time was right to embrace motherhood - although the three-time Grand Slam singles champion never actually used the R word when she left the WTA Tour to have her first child in late 2006, or even when she departed the competitive arena again to bear a second child last June.

Injuries are a further reason. Martina Hingis is the prime example here - the 'Swiss Miss' dominated the women's game in the late nineties before chronic ankle ailments forced her out of competition. Others - such as Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati - 'retired' to recover from problematic pasts.

At just 16-years-old, Seles became the youngest French Open champion in history. Seles had also topped the world rankings when she was tragically stabbed on a Hamburg clay court in 1993. Capriati too was a teenage prodigy who became the youngest ever Wimbledon semi-finalist in 1991, until she was later forced away from tennis due to arrests for possession of cannabis and shoplifting. Capriati's teenage angst left scars. Emotional rather than physical - but like Seles - they needed time to heal off the court.

So, plenty of reasons to quit in the first place. But why all these women decided to comeback - well, that's a much easier one to work out. It's simply that they are born not just with an ability to play tennis extremely well - but with an innate competitiveness and desire to win. After her interruption, Capriati stormed back to enjoy the best years of her career - as she won both the 2001 Australian and French Open titles and also became world number one for the first time.

Tellingly, despite having been sidelined by a shoulder injury for over five years now, Capriati is yet to formally announce her retirement. For a woman now 33 years young, the competitive fire seemingly still burns bright. Seles never quite rescaled the heights she managed first time around - but she still managed to seal a ninth Grand Slam crown in Australia in 1996. She waited five years to announce her retirement.

Hingis also needed no second invitation to return when her body healed sufficiently to allow the Swiss to move back into the top ten in 2006 after three seasons out. But her form dipped again later as injuries once more hindered her performance - a reminder that comebacks don't always provide more major silverware.

In addition, many quit and then - watching players they had regularly beaten go on to win the majors in their absence - realise they should still be involved. This is perhaps most true in the current cases of Clijsters and Henin. As one has already proven and the other will hope to do sometime soon - the current strength of competition on the WTA Tour doesn't deter either from contending for the major prizes. Both are still in their 20s so fitness is also not a problem. It is the quest for further success that motivates them and others to return.

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