There are exceptions. Andre Agassi tumbled down the world rankings, only to surge back again, but it was not a voluntary hiatus, with injury forcing him to lay down his racket for an extended period of time. Even Jennifer Capriati’s break from the game was brought on by mental pressures and a strain on the body that made it impossible for her to continue. She returned to win major titles, as did Monica Seles, lost to the sport because of the thrust of a madman’s knife and the mental anguish that followed.
Many others walked away temporarily because they were bored with life on the road. Later, finding their competitive urges recharged, they realised the game had moved on in their absence and they had been left behind. Look at some of the names from my era who fall into that category: Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, Mats Wilander.
Injuries always presented a huge problem to me as I tried to add to my Wimbledon title, and there was a phase when I did not want to play any more. Once I got over that, I was unable to recapture the level that I had previously expected.
Will Martina Hingis be any different? I’m sceptical, but one thing is for sure. Normally the first couple of rounds in women’s tournaments with a draw of 128 players don’t provide many entertaining matches, but the presence of Hingis after three years in retirement will make fascinating viewing. The draw could have been kinder to her, but she plays Vera Zvonareva, the 30th-seeded Russian whose own career went on the slide last year. If Hingis wins that, the chances are she will play Mary Pierce in the third round — an opponent five years her senior.
Judging by the fact that Hingis reached the semi-finals of the Australian women’s hardcourt championships on Queensland’s Gold Coast earlier this month, she hasn’t forgotten how to hit the ball; she might even have improved. McEnroe told me he played against her last year in an exhibition match and she sent a couple of aces fizzing past him. Yet power serving was never one of her strengths during the 209 weeks that she spent as the world No 1, a figure bettered only by Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert.
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I am far more concerned about her mental strength. I got a taste of what it is like to make a comeback on the doubles court in India a fortnight ago. An old acquaintance asked if I would partner Karan Rastogi, the promising Indian teenager. Briefly forgetting my advanced age of 40, I agreed.
Pretty soon I realised the difference between tennis on the Champions Tour, where you can make three or four ridiculous errors a set, and the real world I knew a couple of decades ago. Make one mistake and you are ruthlessly punished. That rapidly burrows into your self-belief and fortitude.
I was soon asking myself what I was doing on court, and that is the prime danger for anybody on the comeback trail. The common belief is that Hingis quit because she realised she no longer had sufficient firepower to be a contender for the titles. Even though she rocketed a couple of serves past McEnroe, I cannot believe that aspect of her game will have changed in a three-year break. If she is ruthlessly out-hit by one of the more powerful players, then old demons are going to re-emerge quickly.
I remember training with Borg when he decided to make his comeback in 1991. He still moved with the speed and grace of the supreme athlete who won all those French Open and Wimbledon titles, but it wasn’t until he got on to a competitive match court that he realised how difficult a task he faced.
His initial decision to play with a wooden racket was a mistake, but that was swiftly reversed. However, after that first tournament, on clay at Monte Carlo, he went on to play 11 more events in the next two years and failed to win a single match.
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Some said it was sad, others that it was misguided, but it was something Borg needed to do, and it did not detract from the greatness that he showed at his peak. People do go through life-changing experiences and become conscious of the need to give something another try.
If Hingis expects to come back and start winning Grand Slam titles again, I am afraid she is deluded. But if she just feels the need to test herself again, there is nothing wrong with that, because she put enough into the game in her pomp to deserve such an opportunity.
Do I expect her to be playing in the Australian Open again this time next year? I would doubt that very much.