Rebecca Marino of Canada returns the ball to Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia at the Pan Pacific Open tennis tournament in Tokyo September 26, 2011. (REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao)
More and more we have come to understand the darkness and the pain through people like Rebecca Marino, who won’t be playing professional tennis anymore.
You may know her name. Chances are better, you do not. She was once ranked as high as 38th in the world, at one time the best Canadian female tennis player on the planet. But her surprising retirement came Wednesday, even if she didn’t use that word herself. She says she’s stepping back from tennis, which is the basically the same as stepping out.
She doesn’t want to be alone anymore to deal with her depression, on the road, away from family and friends, unable to get out of bed some days, unable to get dressed on others.
“I don’t think it was worth sacrificing my happiness over,” Marino said in a surprising conference call interview. “I do not have the passion to drive myself anymore.”
