Krickstein Has Braced Himself in Comeback

At 22, he plays with his left knee wrapped in a brace the size of a saddle, so Aaron Krickstein has already learned the important tennis lesson that a service break is not nearly as severe as a bone break.

If he just could have hit a tennis ball with a crutch, Krickstein surely would have been top 10 material again.

Circumstances changed quickly. In 1985, when Krickstein checked in at No. 7 in the world, patient was his style at the baseline, not his hospital status.

“I was up there once, then I fell down,” Krickstein said. “Now I’m coming back and people probably don’t think I can get back up there again.”

For the former freestyle and butterfly swimming champion of Michigan at age 5 and 6, it’s either sink or swim in Krickstein’s comeback.

You can follow the path of Krickstein’s six-year pro career and coincidental accident rate, sort of a story of life and limbs, with the use of a medical chart.

Feet:

1984--Stress fracture right foot, metal pin inserted, out five months.

1985--Stress fracture left foot, out two months.

1986--Stress fracture left foot again, out three months.

Legs:

1987--Stress fracture left tibia, out 4 months.

Torso:

1987--Two broken ribs, out 2 months.

If this sounds like a tennis player, it’s purely by accident. The broken ribs, yeah, maybe they hurt the worst, Krickstein said, looking back on the whole thing.

Krickstein had just finished his first practice in four months with the broken leg and got into a taxicab on Long Island that would take him to where he was staying.

Krickstein’s driver ran a red light and the taxicab was hit broadside by another car. Two of Krickstein’s ribs were broken.

“That one was pretty bad,” he said.

The situation became so critical that Krickstein was even forced to twice miss the U.S. Open, his favorite tournament, because of injuries.

But now, things are looking up for Krickstein. He’s on a two-year relatively injury-free streak and he’s coming off his first Grand Slam semifinal appearance.

At the U.S. Open, Krickstein was the next-to-last player to lose to Boris Becker on his way to the championship. Becker took out Krickstein, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4, in the semifinal, then defeated Ivan Lendl in the final.

Becker was impressed by the new Krickstein.

“He is a tough player,” Becker said. “He all the time comes back, he never really gives up and that’s his best point.”

For Krickstein, it was an impressive performance, despite the result. He delivered this message--even 22-year-olds make comebacks. Krickstein found something ironic about all this.

“I would have finished college this year, if I had stayed in school,” he said. “So I could have just played my first U.S. Open and a lot of guys would be saying, ‘This guy is going to be good,’ and I wouldn’t have to deal with everything else I’ve gone through.”

Unable to edit five or so years from his career, Krickstein saw his ranking plummet to No. 64.

Now, he’s back up to No. 16.

Krickstein, who plays his first-round match tonight in the Volvo/Los Angeles tournament at the L.A. Tennis Center at UCLA, has also regained his confidence.

“You ride the Open for a while, with what happened, it’s good for your confidence,” Krickstein said.

It was an unexpected ride. Although it was at the Open that 16-year-old Aaron Krickstein reached the fourth round in 1983, few believed his chances this time around were cast in anything other than plaster of Paris.

In any case, Team Krickstein turned out in force. His mother and father, from Grosse Point, Mich., cheered him on, as did his three sisters and a number of relatives from New York.

Herb Krickstein, a doctor and pathologist at Detroit’s St. John’s Hospital, was elated at the progress his son has made in his comeback.

When things were going bad, it was important to diagnose and treat all of Aaron’s ailing parts, the elder Krickstein said.

“Not just the physical, which was obvious,” he said, “but also the mental part of Aaron, which was just as important.

“Injuries happen to all athletes, it’s how you deal with it, how the people around you support you and believe in you that makes the difference.”

Krickstein has been injury-free, for him, since taking on that taxi.

He won the New South Wales Open at Sydney, Australia, beating Andrei Cherkasov of the Soviet Union in the final, and reached the fourth round at the Australian Open before losing to John McEnroe.

In that match, he popped a tendon in his elbow, missed three tournaments, then lost back-to-back in the first round when he returned.

At least he knew how to handle it.

“I had to start all over again psychologically,” Krickstein said.

When Krickstein won at Tel Aviv in 1983, he became the youngest to win a Grand Prix title. Krickstein was 16 years and two months old, and the new, young American hope.

Then with all the injuries, Krickstein found himself supplanted by such new, young American hopes as Andre Agassi, Michael Chang, Jim Courier, Pete Sampras and Jay Berger.

A Davis Cup teammate of John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors and Peter Fleming in 1985, Krickstein told Arthur Ashe he couldn’t play because of his sore foot that was soon diagnosed as a stress fracture.

Krickstein was No. 7 in the world at the time.

“I never got to enjoy being on top,” he said. “Chang and Agassi, they got to play and win tournaments when they were up.”

Krickstein was amused when Berger’s name was brought up.

“He’s a couple of months older than I am,” Krickstein said. “What am I? Chopped liver?”

No, just fractured foot. But that’s all over now, isn’t it? The Krickstein comeback is still incomplete, although it does seem to be looking a lot more encouraging lately.

A young veteran with a knee brace and a headband hopes so.

“It’s kind of a weird situation because I’m in my sixth year, but I haven’t really played six years because of injuries,” Krickstein said. “Hopefully, I won’t get injured anymore.”

Tennis Notes

Christo van Rensburg, the only seeded player who played at UCLA Monday, lost his first-round match, 1-6, 7-5, 6-1, to Darren Cahill. Van Rensburg led, 5-2, 15-40, then proceeded to blow four match points. He led, 5-3, 30-0, and double-faulted three times. He double-faulted twice more in his next service game. “They just didn’t want to go in,” said Van Rensburg, who was seeded seventh. Said Cahill: “I was lucky. It was just one of those things. I’ll probably never do it again.” Cahill, coming back from an ankle injury, lost in the first round of the U.S. Open, his only other match since Wimbledon.

Jim Pugh, who lost to Wally Masur in a five-set first-round match at the U.S. Open, lost his opening match to wild-card Slobodan Zivojinovic as another tiebreaker decided the final set: 6-2, 2-6 7-6 (7-0). “I hope I don’t have too many more matches like that,” Pugh said. Pugh and Rick Leach, Australian Open champions, are seeded second in the doubles behind Wimbledon winners John Fitzgerald and Anders Jarryd. The doubles draw is extremely deep and also features Patrick McEnroe and Mark Woodforde, Kevin Curren and David Pate, Jim Courier and Pete Sampras, Pieter Aldrich and Danie Visser, and Paul Annacone and Van Rensburg.

Van Rensburg was one of a select few who attended Ivan Lendl’s wedding Friday at Lendl’s estate in Greenwich, Conn. Lendl wed longtime companion Samantha Frankel. Van Rensburg, who went to the ceremony with girlfriend Monica Reinach, said print and television reporters were not allowed at Lendl’s wedding. “They wanted to keep it small and quiet, but I can tell you that the bride and groom looked very happy,” Van Rensburg said. The Lendls are in Europe on their honeymoon.