Hard Court

Before Quynh Nguyen walks onto the tennis courts Saturday morning at Huntington Beach High, she will tell her doubles partner, Tam Dang, “No pain, no gain,” for the last time. Nguyen and Dang will laugh at the irony of the phrase so they can keep from crying.

“No pain, no gain” has become a sports cliche, but to Nguyen, it is a motto to live by.

Nguyen will not be the best, the fastest or the most polished player at the Southern Section individual sectionals Saturday. But she will be the toughest and most courageous.

Nguyen has played the entire season at Garden Grove High with rheumatoid arthritis. She cannot run, at times she can barely walk. Her feet ache, her hands throb, her knee pounds and her shoulder feels as if someone is poking her with a knife. She is on so many pain pills she’s not even sure how much pain she’s in.

Her first practice this fall looked as if it would be her last. Nguyen and Dang, who lost only two dual-match sets as juniors and won the Garden Grove League doubles title, lost to Garden Grove’s No. 2 team, 6-0. Afterward, a sobbing Nguyen told Dang and her coach, William Lou, the pain was unbearable and she was quitting.

Nearly three months later, Nguyen and Dang are league doubles champions again. They have matched their 65-2 record of last year and qualified for Saturday’s section championship qualifying rounds.

How?

“It’s incredible,” Lou said. “I’ve never had a girl like this before.”

Nguyen isn’t sure herself how she has been able to pull it off.

“Basically, it’s the pain relievers,” she said. “I don’t practice as much as the other girls. They say I’m a natural, but I don’t know about that. I don’t know, I just hit the ball over the net. My serves are a little weaker and I hit my forehand with two hands now, but it gets the job done.”

Maybe a better question is, why? Why put yourself through all the agony?

“My body wanted to give in, but my mind wouldn’t,” Nguyen said. “I loved tennis so much and I wanted to defend my league title. My partner said it didn’t matter how I played, but that it’s my last year. She said it doesn’t matter if you lose.”

Nguyen still wasn’t convinced.

“I just cried more and said I wanted to die more,” she said, laughing. “I kept thinking, ‘Why me?’ I was totally healthy. I remember when I was healthy, I was so much happier. Now, at least every day, something hurts.”

Nguyen said she began hurting early last summer, about the time she was winning the doubles title at the Watts Summer Games with Hong Diep, Garden Grove’s No. 1 singles player.

“I thought it was aches and pains from running too much or sleeping on the wrong side of the bed,” she said. “Then, during the Watts Games, I couldn’t run really fast. I was basically flat-footed. It hurt to walk.”

The first doctor Nguyen saw said she had rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic disease characterized by inflammation of the joints. The disease afflict about 2.1 million Americans and is more common in older adults. The first doctor told Nguyen she shouldn’t play tennis, but she could swim. Nguyen didn’t like that opinion so she sought a second one from Dr. Brian Andrews in late July.

Sure enough, the second blood test also came back positive for rheumatoid arthritis. But Nguyen said Andrews didn’t tell her she couldn’t play tennis.

“He didn’t say I could either,” she said. Andrews didn’t return phone calls Thursday.

Not entirely understanding the severity of the disease, Nguyen said she waited for her arthritis to go away. Instead, it got worse.

“I couldn’t take it anymore,” she said. “My hip hurt so bad, I walked like a duck.

“I wanted to die, totally.”

Dang said that became Nguyen’s most popular expression this summer.

“I hated her for that,” Dang said. “I felt like she was giving up hope on herself and me.”

But she didn’t want to push her friend into doing something she wasn’t capable of.

“I felt like that would be selfish on my part, that I only wanted her to be with me so we could win tennis matches,” Dang said. “Not knowing the kind of pain she was in, I just told her it would be nice for her to play.”

Dang said she tried playing during the summer without Nguyen, but it wasn’t much fun.

“I didn’t feel like I had a purpose anymore without Quynh on the court,” Dang said.

However, against the advice of one doctor and her parents, Nguyen willed herself to continue.

“They don’t like that I play,” Nguyen said of her parents. “They think my health’s more important. But they didn’t like me playing when I was healthy, because they said it took up too much time. They could care less about my tennis. They just ask when is the tennis season over.”

Once Lou realized Nguyen was going to play, he knew there had to be exceptions made for her.

“She doesn’t run in practice with the other girls,” Lou said. “She just moves her feet as fast as she can. We’ve had to make some adjustments on the court. Tam has to cover more ground.”

But Dang said her partner has held her own.

“She’s still a good player,” Dang said.

Nguyen, who learned the game in a junior high physical education class, said she is lucky she’s not a singles player.

“[Dang] tries to get most of the balls for me,” Nguyen said. “I really don’t know if our opponents know about me. They might see I’m not running fast and hit a short ball, but that’s about it.”

Many of their sets have been tighter and their points aren’t as well played, but Nguyen and Dang have managed to win. Somehow.

“I really had no expectations,” Nguyen said. “This year, me and my partner were so happy just to be out there together. Winning the league again this year was so special considering everything I’ve been through.”

And everything she’s still going through. The pain is not going away. If anything, it’s more intense than ever.

“They’re giving me something to reduce the swelling and contain the disease, but it must not be working,” she said. “I’m thinking of adding some more pain pills.”

Nguyen said she’s still looking for answers to a couple questions. Why me and when will there be a cure?

“My coach said this is not uncommon in young girls, but I don’t know any other girls who have it,” she said. “The doctor said it might be hereditary or it might have been a virus.”

However she became afflicted, Nguyen knows she can’t keep playing tennis. In all likelihood, she will attend UC Irvine next fall and major in biology, and she will play her last competitive tennis match Saturday morning.

“I don’t expect to win,” she said. “I just want to go out and compete. I think I’ve already proven a lot to myself.”