At the beginning of 2017, Japanese tennis player Yoshihito Nishioka was a rising star. After earning his second win in a Grand Slam tournament at the 2017 Australian Open in January, he followed that up with his first career win over a top-20 opponent on the ATP Tour when he defeated Jack Sock at the Mexican Open. Nishioka achieved a career-high ATP singles ranking on March 20, 2017, when he reached the No. 58 spot in the world.
Five days later, the career of this rising star came to a grinding halt.
In the first set of his second-round matchup at the Miami Open, Nishioka tore his ACL. In an interview with atptour.com, he spoke about the injury.
“I didn’t know how badly my knee was injured. I had never had an injury like that. I didn’t feel any pain so, [I thought], ‘Well I can play’. But my coach and the physio said, ‘You tore your ACL for sure. You have to stop’,” Nishioka said.
After Nishioka received surgery in early April 2017, he couldn’t run for three months, and couldn’t play tennis for nine months. His once career-high ranking plummeted to No. 380 in the world.
But that didn’t stop him from returning to the court.
In January 2018, after months of rehab, Nishioka was back playing on the ATP Tour and received direct entry into the 2018 Australian Open. In the opening round of the tournament, he won his first match since returning from his injury. Fast forward to September, at the 2018 ATP Shenzhen Open, he earned the first ATP World Tour Title of his career. Today, Nishioka continues to climb the ranks, and the 24-year-old sits at the No. 77 spot in the world.
But what the numbers and the stats don’t tell you about Nishioka, is that his comeback story inspired other athletes suffering from similar situations.
Athletes like Joseph Blakely.
Blakely, a junior member this year of the men’s tennis team at St. Bonaventure, was playing intramural soccer in November 2018 when he got into a tackle and injured his knee. He immediately knew something was wrong, but he didn’t know what the extent of the injury was, until he went to the doctor the next day.
“I didn’t realize I had torn my ACL and MCL…the doctor told me, which was some tragic news,” said Blakely. “It took a few weeks to hit me, kind of mentally…even after surgery it was like, ‘wow’, like, it was a big shock.”
But Blakely came to St. Bonaventure to play tennis, and after being limited to just five matches in the 2018 season, he wasn’t going to let his injury stop him from doing what he loved.
After extensive research on ACL injuries, as well as drawing inspiration from Nishioka, Blakely attacked the rehab process head-on. It didn’t take him long to prove to his head coach, Michael Bates, how badly he wanted to come back.
“I knew like, he was serious about it when he started rehabbing before the surgery,” said Bates. “Then as soon as the surgery was done in December, he was back here on campus in early January, and two hours every day down in the training room, so I think the trainers were really impressed that he was able to come back so quickly.”
But similar to Nishioka, the recovery from this injury was anything but easy. Blakely worked extensively with assistant athletic trainer Andrew Birschbach, meeting with him every day for the first three months following surgery to regain the ability to move the leg and improve the confidence in his movement. After that, Blakely transitioned to more strength-related exercises, and aerobic activity. As his rehab and overall strength improved, his desire to return to the court was higher than ever. That is where Blakely’s mental strength came into play.
“Around the three-month period…you’re getting better to an extent where you want to push yourself, but you can’t. It always feels like you’re going over one hurdle, and then you’re going back over the same hurdle,” said Blakely. “There’s always restrictions of something going on.”
Last weekend, Blakely finally achieved what he had been working towards for an entire year. He was back playing tennis, as he competed with the team at the Navy Invitational in Annapolis, Maryland.
It wasn’t the storybook return that Nishioka had. Blakely dropped his first match 1-6, 5-7, and then had to retire from his second match and withdraw from his third due to some discomfort and swelling in his knee.
However, the results from the weekend didn’t take away from the feeling of being back out on the court.
“It was just great competing again, being out there…and then just having that extra drive of like, ‘I want to win the next time I play’…it’s just amazing to be able to play again,” said Blakely.
Blakely will have a few weeks to rest the knee before the Bonnies return to action. Coach Bates’ squad will travel to the University of Pennsylvania for the ITA Regionals from Oct. 17 to 18.
By Tommy Valentine, Contributing Writer
valenttr19@bonaventure.edu
