Blood Disorder Forces Graham to Quit Tour

Debbie Graham can take a hint.

A former All-American at Stanford and top 35 singles player on the women’s tour, Graham stared death in the face five years ago when a blood clot in her left leg passed through her lungs to her heart, which momentarily stopped.

Then in March--just as she was working her way back up the doubles rankings--a blood clot showed up in the same leg. Doctors caught it in time.

A former high school All-American at La Quinta and the WTA’s Most Impressive Newcomer in 1992, Graham figures she might not be so lucky if a third clot strikes. A disorder that makes her blood prone to clotting is forcing Graham to retire at 29.

The big goodbye will come later this month at the U.S. Open, an event that will be a fitting end to what she calls her sporadic 10-year career.

“My body just can’t take the lifestyle anymore,” Graham said. “I’m not religious by any means, but I think things happen for a reason.”

Former tour player Patty Fendick-McCain, who was with Graham when she passed out and nearly died in 1995, agrees with her friend’s decision to retire.

“I think it’s probably the best thing,” said Fendick-McCain, now the women’s tennis coach at Washington. “I don’t think there’s any point in tempting fate. I think it would be different if she would have been at the top of her game. But the road back is so incredibly tough.”

Graham had traveled that road once--working her way back to a top 60 doubles ranking after misxsing half a year in 1995. Then in March, her left leg began to swell during a practice session for a Challenger tournament in West Palm Beach, Fla.

A tour trainer who knew of Graham’s problems with deep-vein thrombosis--blood clots in the leg that can be carried to the lungs--sent her straight to the hospital and into panic mode.

“The first time I didn’t know how severe it was until I woke up and all these people were around me,” she said. “This last time, I knew what the consequences were when I was admitted to the hospital.”

It would be several hours before Graham--still wearing her tennis clothes--would be examined in the overcrowded hospital. An ultrasound revealed a blood clot that spanned the middle of her left calf to the middle of her thigh.

In some cases, a clot that severe can either kill a person or require a partial amputation. Graham’s body’s ability to form a secondary vein saved her.

She stayed in intensive care for two days. At one point, a doctor told her that she had cancer. Jaci Graham, who flew in to be with her daughter, said the ordeal was “earth-shaking.”

Ten days later, Graham was flown to Stanford Hospital, where Graham’s physician, John Harris, is associate professor of surgery.

“I believe in them and my doctor is one of the best vascular surgeons in the world,” Graham said.

Tests revealed that Graham had overtrained an area where veins had already been damaged from her first episode.

“I think she overexerted herself in Florida,” Harris said.

The initial blood clot, which occurred after she landed in San Francisco upon returning from Wimbledon, might have been brought on by the type of birth control pills Graham was using.

“All birth control pills make women more prone to deep-vein thrombosis,” Harris said. “Although most women don’t have the kind of condition Debbie has.”

Graham lost consciousness in the San Francisco airport and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. During the ride, Graham’s heart stopped beating. It started again after an injection of Adrenalin.

If Graham had not been traveling with Fendick--who had similar complications after knee surgery--her fainting might have been mistaken for something else.

“As soon as it happened, I thought, ‘Oh my God, I think she’s got a blood clot,’ ” Fendick-McCain said. “The medical people looked at me like I was crazy.”

Graham was unconscious for four days.

It would be nearly three months before she could walk again and seven months before she returned to the tour.

Graham, whose singles ranking had fallen below 130 by the end of 1995, vowed to make a return to the top 100. She never got there, but her doubles ranking began climbing again.

In 1999, Graham won at Quebec City with Cara Black and was a mixed doubles semifinalist at the Australian Open with Ellis Ferreira.

Graham and Miyagi reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open this year. But the grind of the tour took its toll and contributed to Graham’s second scare.

“I promised myself after the first time I would limit my travel,” she said. “But it’s hard. And five years later, I was doing it again.”

Fendick-McCain still wonders how Graham did it.

“She had a lot of tissue damage and she lost a lot more lung capacity than I did,” she said. “The fact that she was able to come back at all was staggering.”

The second time around, Graham’s recovery was much smoother. She was able to walk within a few days of leaving Stanford. But the thought of playing the tour again wasn’t appealing.

“We’re on a points system. I have to play 11 months out of the year to keep my ranking up,” Graham said. “I have to travel every week. There’s no off-season.”

Graham, still ranked 57th in doubles, didn’t plan to start her farewell tour until this month. She had only recently started hitting with friends and playing doubles at the Palisades Club when Kim Po asked her to play two weeks ago at Stanford.

“I said, ‘OK, but don’t expect a lot,’ ” said Graham, whose doubles ranking still qualifies her for most tournaments.

Whether it was lowered expectations or the four-month break, Graham was sharp. She and Po advanced to the semifinals at the Bank of the West Classic, but lost in three sets to Black and Amy Frazier after leading, 5-2, in the third set.

Harris sat in awe as he watched two of Graham’s matches.

“She was playing great,” said Harris, who has Graham on a high dose of blood-thinning medication. “She was serving 115 to 120 [mph]. I was impressed. People with less fortitude would have given up.”

Graham, who turns 30 on Aug. 25, has already started her life after tennis. In June, she began working in sales for Para-Protect, an Internet start-up specializing in operational network security.

During the Stanford tournament, Graham made sales calls when she wasn’t playing and wore a Para-Protect shirt in her matches. She is settling into this new stage in her life.

“I’m really happy now,” said Graham, who owns a condominium in Newport Beach. “I really enjoy my job. It’s good being home with my friends and family. I’ve missed this kind of life.”

Graham acknowledges she missed out on a few goals.

“Being No. 1 was not one of them, but I wanted to win a Grand Slam,” she said. “I wanted to be the first top-20 player that graduated from college.”

But Graham is hardly turning her back on tennis. She is still active in the Women’s Tennis Assn. player council and she plans to run for a position on the USTA board. She is also developing a web site that will include news on juniors and college players, and she is looking into broadcasting opportunities.

But in a month, Graham’s playing days will be over. She is sad, but not disappointed.

“I got to travel the world, play with the best athletes and meet amazing people . . . So I don’t get to end it the way I wanted to, but how often do you get to do that?”