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.

I've been doing things I couldn't do on the tour. I've been spending more time with my family, which I couldn't do with all the traveling. I have a house in the south of France, I have my dog there. I can hang out with friends more. I have more time to myself. I love learning – I went back to school last year, and next year I'm going back again. I'm taking courses in media and politics, a nice background for when I'm older and want to get involved in more areas.

The looks were also there for Golovin, as you could see in the 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue.

The 23-year-old is pretty certain that professional tennis is out of option, even though the sport would always be her top choice, with all the excitement the tournaments, fans and wins bring. She still hasn't chosen her definite new career, however, she's currently enjoying journalism, both as a commentator for France Television and Orange Television and as a columnist in Sport & Style Magazine for L'Equipe.

Current world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki, then ranked 38th, was the last to play against Golovin, then ranked 21st. It was in May 2008 in Berlin.

Golovin is active on Twitter under @misstati13. I've added her updates to my Twitter widget which you can see below the fourth article on the homepage. (photo: Stephane Martinache)

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)

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.

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)

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.

Something, however, I do know. The 2008 year has been filled with injury problems for Golovin. She hasn’t played competitive tennis since May, and even before May she was not consistently competing because of her lower back injury and hip surgery.

Tati will hopefully do well at the 2009 Australian Open, which should be her first tournament after a long time. (photos via Down the Line)

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)

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)