What a refreshment! The WTA is updating us on Tatiana Golovin.

In the peak of her success, at the top of her game, Tatiana Golovin was faced with a recognition that she would probably never play tennis again. What later proved to be a chronic back inflammation struck when the Russian-born Frenchwoman was a 20-year-old close to reaching Top 10 in the WTA rankings, and after a breakthrough 2007 with two titles (Portoroz and Amelia Island) and two finals (Stuttgart and Zurich).

At the time I never thought I would stop six months later […] Mentally it was very tough. It's a big shock when something so important in your life goes away. It took me a whole year to realize I couldn't play anymore. I took time off to go away from everything and try to find myself again.

Even though she was not prepared for such a turn in her life, Golovin has learned to embrace what she has and is now studying and spending more time with family and friends. Read more »

Injury-troubled Tatiana Golovin is coming closer to the tennis courts, as a commentator for French television during the French Open.

Last year in February Golovin was ranked 12th in the world, while now she’s as low as No.1128. Yes, that's 1-1-2-8! Due to a back injury she missed most of the 2008 season, and we’re still waiting for the 21-year-old Frenchwoman of Russian descent to get back to competing. (source: Tennis.com, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Have you missed Tatiana Golovin? The player once ranked 12th in the world, now ranked as low as No.799, met with the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour after a recent autograph session.

The Frenchwoman talked about meeting her fans, her goals for 2009, and of course about her ongoing recovery from back problems.

It’s nice to see Tati in tennis news, and not only smoking in the streets and in dating rumors.

Thanks to the Off the Baseline website we’re able to see the highly-anticipated 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit photos prior to their official release.

Russian Maria Kirilenko, Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova and French Tatiana Golovin were photographed by Walter Iooss. As for Kirilenko, we know she enjoyed posing on the beach in the Dominican Republic.

We still don’t know who will appear on the cover; it will be announced on Monday’s episode of David Letterman. The 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue is dropping on Tuesday the 10th.

Women’s tennis players that had previously appeared in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue include: Anna Kournikova, Maria Sharapova, Steffi Graf, Serena Williams and Venus Williams.

There have been speculations that France’s Tatiana Golovin might leave tennis because of her persistent back injury, but according to a fan site Tatiana is not losing hope.

In an e-mail Tatiana sent to www.golovin-attitude.com, she said:

"Unfortunately, I’m still suffering from my back, so I have to stop again, I can’t tell you more. It is pretty tough but I am ok and I am still optimistic."

Well, it doesn’t sound too good, but there still are chances of the 20-year-old's return.

In addition, they are stating at the site that Tatiana’s disease might be Ankylosing spondylitis, which is a chronic degenerative inflammatory arthritis. According to doctors, athletes who have this disease will have their careers filled with ups and downs.

At the website they are also saying that the disease can’t go away, but it can disappear for certain periods of time. (photo: golovin-tatiana.com)

These days Tatiana Golovin’s tennis career is threatened by her chronic back pain so, just in case, we’re hurrying up to add her childhood photos to our series of pictures of women’s tennis players when they were little.

The 20-year-old Tatiana hasn’t changed much, actually. OK, these two photos don’t seem to be too old anyway; they are apparently not from her early childhood. Have you maybe seen more young pics of the former world No.12 and two-time WTA singles titlist? (photos via Tennis Forum)

According to this French article, the continuation of Tatiana Golovin’s tennis career is seriously under question. Apparently, the 20-year-old has some blood disease which causes the chronic pain in her back.

What a disappointment. Golovin won her first WTA titles (Amelia Island and Portoroz) in 2007, and the following year we’re already discussing her retirement. Oh, too bad.

Another sad fact is that in February the French tennis player was ranked 12th, but has slipped to No. 249 by the end of the 2008 season.

Golovin played her possibly last competitive tennis match in the first round of Berlin back in May, when she fell to Dane Caroline Wozniacki.

We'll keep you updated on this story. (photo: golovin-tatiana.com)

I didn’t know Tatiana Golovin smoked!

Considering the current state of her tennis career, no wonder she resorted to vices. Let’s just mention that the 20-year-old Golovin started the 2008 season ranked 13th, and now she’s ranked 249th.

Or maybe the French tennis player started smoking because of her turbulent love life? Who knows. Read more »

Tatiana Golovin of France will need to skip the 2008 US Open and I suppose the reason is the same back injury which forced her out of the Beijing Olympics.

It's hard to keep track of all the tournaments Golovin had to miss this year. The 20-year old will finish the 2008 season having played only one Grand Slam, the Australian Open. In addition, the other tournaments she has played so far include only: Sydney in January (reached the second round), Memphis in February (fell in the first round), $100K ITF/Cagnes-sur-Mer-FRA (was top-seeded and lost in the second round) and Berlin (lost in the first round) in May. And that’s all! It was quicker for me to name the tournaments she played than the ones she skipped.

On February 4th she reached career high of No.12, and now she's ranked 35th.

Golovin is expected to play at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, which starts September 29th. (photo: golovin-tatiana.com)

Shortly before the scheduled start of the tennis event at the 2008 Olympics French world No.28 Tatiana Golovin pulled out of singles and doubles.

The 20-year-old, who played only nine matches this season, was forced to withdraw from the Beijing Olympics because of a back injury.

Golovin was to play doubles with Pauline Parmentier. In singles, she will be replaced by Maret Ani of Estonia. (source: CBS Sports, photo: Getty Images)