Molik Earns Australian Open Wildcard

Good to see Alicia Molik looking happy again.

From The Age: Wildly happy, Molik earns her place

AS ALICIA Molik stood clutching a box of orchids and a giant Australian Open sign supposed to symbolise the wildcard she had just won, the former world No. 8 was also warning that she does not intend to return to Melbourne Park next month simply to contest the first round.

Vowing to maximise the opportunity she had earned over the previous four days, Molik reminded the crowd that she had been an Open quarter-finalist two years ago. "And it's my intention," she added, "to get as close as I can to that again."...

Molik Into AO Wildcard Playoff Final

Alicia Molik shouldn't have any trouble picking up the Australian Open wildcard tomorrow, but she still seems to be looking for her game.

From The Herald Sun: Alicia Molik looks to improve

COACH Paul Kilderry had gone in search of a basket of balls even before Alicia Molik polished off another Australian Open wildcard play-off victory yesterday.

Molik shook hands at the net after beating young Victorian Marija Mirkovic 6-4 6-1 in the semi-finals, bundled up her gear and headed straight to the practice court.

Molik Accepts Being Left Off Fed Cup Team

Alicia Molik says she feels completely healthy and will make her WTA return at the Italian Open.

From The Herald Sun: Rusty Molik to sit out Fed Cup

ALICIA Molik's long-awaited tennis return is still on hold after she was left out of Australia's Fed Cup team yesterday.

Captain David Taylor said from Seoul he couldn't risk the former world No. 8 in the Asia-Oceania Group round-robin matches starting today.

"Unfortunately for Alicia, she's a bit too rusty and not up to the level required," Taylor said.

Molik Not on Fed Cup Team

Alicia Molik wasn't named to Australia's Fed Cup team after all, according to the AAP. 

"The Australian Fed Cup tennis team to contest a round robin event in South Korea starting on Wednesday has been announced, with Alicia Molik a notable absentee.

Former world No.8 Molik had been tipped in some quarters to make her long-awaited return from a debilitating virus as a doubles player, but she hasn't been named in the team...

Captain David Taylor named Stosur, experienced campaigners Nicole Pratt and Rennae Stubbs and debutante Casey Dellacqua in the four-woman team."

Australia's Fed Cup captain David Taylor (also Molik's former coach) had previously said that Molik would be on the team if her form looked good in practice: 

"We haven't seen too many players reach Alicia's level in Australian tennis, so if she's showing any of that previous form you'd be crazy not to include her," said Taylor.

Molik to Return for Fed Cup

This is hopeful - Alicia Molik seems to be making a faster than expected recovery from the symptoms of vestibular neuronitis now.  I admit I thought she was done for good.

From The Age: Molik to dip toe in water in Fed Cup tie in Seoul

ALICIA Molik is on the verge of a full-scale comeback, less than six months after an inner-ear virus forced her out of tennis. Molik was a surprise inclusion yesterday in the Australian squad to contest next month's Asia/Oceania Federation Cup play-offs in Seoul, where she hopes to test the waters before taking the big tournament plunge.

Molik had planned to sit out 2006 to recover from vestibular neuronitis, a condition that had dramatically affected her balance and energy levels and eventually pushed her off the circuit in October last year.

Molik to Train, But No Plans to Return to Tennis Yet

From the AAP: Molik out of another tournament

Now Dancing With The Stars is out of the way, Alicia Molik can get back to what she does best - tennis.

But the Olympic bronze medallist, struck down by illness in the past year, is reluctant to announce her return to the tennis tour just yet.

Australia's Fed Cup Captain Hopeful Molik Could Return

From The Age: Fed Cup skipper optimistic Molik will be back

AUSTRALIA'S new Fed Cup captain David Taylor remains hopeful that Alicia Molik will return to full health and come back into the team when she overcomes the inner-ear infection that has stalled her career.

Taylor, who acted as Molik's coach until she quit the circuit indefinitely at the end of 2005, was yesterday appointed as the nation's first full-time Fed Cup captain, with the additional role of developing young talent.

Status Quo for Molik

From The Sydney Morning Herald: Now she's talking: Molik will be back when she's ready

ALICIA Molik has not set a comeback date and noted that she had positioned herself to fail by having unrealistic goals as she attempted to play with an inner-ear infection last year.

The former world No.8 is still affected by vision and balance problems and has no timeframe for when she may hit a tennis ball competitively or even in training.

"I'll step onto the court again when I really feel that much better," Molik said. "I have no timeframe whatsoever. Last year I had goals and targets and I constantly disappointed myself. I was setting myself up to fall."...

Molik Looking for Australian Talent

From The Advertiser: Molik to hunt for new recruits

ALICIA Molik will join Tennis Australia's biggest recruiting drive in a generation as the sport's administrators attempt to revive the sport.

Sidelined with an inner ear virus, the former world No. 8 will join TA's hunt to find Australia's best young athletes.

The target group is six to 11-year-olds.

"There are a lot of kids out there who are good at sports but who may not have had much exposure to tennis," Molik said. "These kids could have the potential to become great tennis players, but don't yet know it.

"This day is about finding good athletes with an aptitude for tennis."

Molik to Help Aussie Tennis

From The Age: Molik considers non-playing role

ALICIA Molik will not be lost to Australian tennis this summer, with potential non-playing roles for the sidelined national No. 1 discussed at a meeting yesterday at Melbourne Park.

Molik canvassed several options with Tennis Australia's director of player development, Craig Tiley, including working with juniors at the fledgling national high-performance academy.

"Nothing's decided, but since Alicia is taking time off and has a great passion for the sport, she's currently talking to Tennis Australia about the avenues in which she can contribute," Tiley confirmed.

"We'd like her to do as much as she wants to: coaching, being a spokesperson for us, getting out on to the court with the kids, making a difference in our environment. And we want to help her with her tennis: whatever's going to motivate her, make her feel good about her role."

Molik Looking for Help

From The Age: Molik to lend ear to advice

ALICIA Molik will enlist public help in her career-threatening battle with the inner-ear virus vestibular neuronitis. Although the door on her tennis career may be closed for six to 12 months, the ailing Australian No. 1 remains open to suggestion from any source.

Molik arrived in Melbourne from Switzerland on Wednesday afternoon, a week after retiring from her aborted first-round match in Zurich. Her agent, Lisa Chaffey, said Molik would consult her Melbourne specialist and also was likely to travel to Sydney for further neurological advice.

Chaffey said public input would be welcomed in the search for a cure. Dr Mark Paine from the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital told The Age this week that up to 25 per cent of vestibular neuronitis sufferers never fully recovered.

"Alicia's open to hearing from anyone who's had a similar illness or similar symptoms …" Chaffey said yesterday. "She wants to keep all options open …"

Australian Doctor Agrees With Molik's Decision

From the Sydney Morning Herald: Molik's career at risk, warns specialist

A senior neurologist has advised Alicia Molik against rushing into retirement but warned the Australian No.1 that she may never fully recover from the inner-ear virus that is threatening to prematurely end her career.

The head of the vestibular investigation unit at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, Mark Paine, said up to one-quarter of people diagnosed with vestibular neuronitis, the clinical condition which has afflicted Molik since March, were left with residual nerve damage.

Asked if Molik might never play top-level tennis again, Paine replied: "Absolutely."

Molik Clarifies - She's Not Retiring

From Reuters: No early retirement for Molik

Former world number eight Australian Alicia Molik, forced to take a break from tennis due to a persistent virus that is affecting her balance, has no plans to retire in the near future, her manager said on Saturday...

"It's nowhere near any kind of retirement," Molik's manager Lisa Chaffey told Australian Associated Press. "She is more than likely just going to take a significant period of time off.

"If that has to be a 12-month sabbatical from the game then so be it.

"There's not set time period in mind, she's just dedicated to having as long off as needed because when she does come back she wants to be at the standard she was at."

Chaffey said Molik would miss January's Australian Open but was not prepared to guess how long she would be out of the game.

"She doesn't want to say she wants to be ready for Wimbledon or the U.S. Open or anything like that which puts pressure on her," Chaffey said.

"She just wants to get it right."

Molik to Step Away From Tennis

Rumors this morning in the Australian press said the Alicia Molik was going to retire from tennis.  Now Molik has spoken and the rumors are unfortunately mostly true.  She isn't using the word retirement, but she is going to stop playing indefinitely.  To her credit she's putting an optimistic face on the news, but it's sad that tennis has become such a strain on her that the idea of not playing makes her feel better.

From The Australian: Molik gives game away

ALICIA MOLIK has given up her fight against the virus that has reduced her career to ruins, and has no plans to compete again in the foreseeable future...

"I almost dreaded going out on the court because I didn't know what to expect each day," Molik said in Zurich. "The fun, the enjoyment, the satisfaction is all taken out of it. I feel like emotion has been taken out of me; it's been taken out of my game.

"A lot of days on the court I feel very resigned and a little bit dead inside, which is a very sad thing. I know each day is going to be incredibly challenging. That spurs me on, but at the same time it really is a very difficult thing to handle, day in and day out, to have that constant feeling.

"At this stage I think I need a long period of time away, first of all to become healthy again, to get over my illness, and second of all to remain happy and to do things to occupy myself.

Molik to Retire

This is terrible.  If reports out of  Australia are correct, Alicia Molik will announce her retirement from professional tennis soon.

From Fox Sports Australia: Molik reportedly set to retire

AUSTRALIA's former world No.8 Alicia Molik is reportedly set to announce her retirement from tennis.

Sources within the Molik camp said the 24-year-old, who has been hampered by inner ear virus vestibular neuronitis, was set to quit the sport within the next few days, Fox Sports TV news reported.

The illness, which affects her vision and balance and drains her of energy, stopped Molik in her meteoric climb up the women's tennis rankings.

Yesterday Molik's manager said that some of the damage suffered from the vestibular neuronitis may be irreversible and I imagine that would be the reason for her retirement.

I feel so badly for her.  At this year's Australian Open I hadn't quite taken to her yet and rooted against her in her quarterfinal match with Lindsay Davenport, the one Davenport finally won 9-7 in the third.  Now I so wish Molik had pulled it out and been able to go further in the tournament.  She would have faced Nathalie Dechy in the semis and that certainly would have been a winnable match for her.  Against Serena in the finals - well, it would have been quite a show with the pro-Australian crowd.

Now we'll (and more importantly she'll) never know what she could have accomplished in her career. 

The most important thing, of course, is her health.  From what we've seen since her comeback, I think she'll be able to live a normal life but the physical and mental coordination that professional tennis requires is now beyond her.  That's the best case scenario anyway - I hope she's healthy enough that it won't bother her in other aspects of her life.

I suspect she may have a tough transition.  When Lleyton Hewitt got engaged to Bec Cartwright after the Australian Open the Aussie press went to Molik and asked, "Well, what about you?"  Her response was that there was no way she'd be getting engaged in the near future, that there wasn't even any guy in her life because she was devoting all of her life to tennis for the next few years.  It's difficult to go from that kind of single-minded focus to finding something meaningful to do with the rest of your life under these circumstances.

In all likelihood, she'll end up working with the Australian tennis media in some capacity in the short-term.  Did anyone catch the report she did from the Filderstadt players' party recently for Eurosport?  You can catch a clip of it on this page and she was really quite a natural. 

But naturally that won't provide the same adrenaline rush and feeling of accomplishment that life as a professional tennis player does.  Hopefully she'll find her way.   

Molik May Never Regain Form

The news on Alicia Molik's health is in and it isn't good.  Following Molik being forced to retire from her match yesterday at the Zurich Open, her manager has admitted that Molik is only about 55-60% recovered from her bout with vestibular neuronitis and doesn't know if she'll ever make a full recovery.

From The Age: Another major setback for Molik

"She's still struggling from the vestibular neuronitis. It's not something that's recurred over the last 24 hours," her manager Lisa Chaffey said.

"She had definitely improved leaps and bounds before she played New haven, but she's still only 55 to 60 per cent out there.

"It's something she's working through and looking after health is the most important thing.

"But there's no date for a full recovery and, at this stage, she's not sure she'll make a full recovery."

Poor Alicia Molik

We knew Alicia Molik had been struggling since she began her lastest comeback from vestibular neuronitis just before the U.S. Open (only one win so far), but the assumption was that she was just rusty after not having played tennis for so long.

Unfortunately, today it became apparent that even after 6 months she hasn't yet shaken that inner ear infection.  With Jelena Jankovic leading 6-3, 4-2 in Zurich, Molik retired from the match and left the court in tears after once again feeling the effects of the infection.  She looked sluggish and dizzy and although she served well, she wasn't able to do much else.  Terrible luck.

Molik Talks About Illness

Last year Alicia Molik wouldn't have said a second round loss at the Wismilak Open was a good result, but in the early stages of her comeback from vestibular neuronitis just winning a match is positive. 

In this article from Fox Sports Australia, Molik talks about her time away from tennis: Virus made me a recluse: Molik

ALICIA Molik has revealed the full extent of the debilitating virus that has ruined her year, saying it not only sapped her energy but turned her into an unhappy recluse...

Uncomfortable and unable to do much more than just mootch around the house, she was miserable and far from her usual upbeat self.

"A lot of times I wished I was invisible," Molik said...

The virus, which struck Molik following the Miami tournament in March, affected her balance and vision and left her constantly fatigued.

"I woke up and felt terrible," she said. "The room was spinning and I was off-balance. It lasted one day, then for 48 hours, and it continued for about five months...

"At the end of Miami I was feeling incredibly fatigued, slightly dizzy and a little bit heavy at times," she said.

"I was struggling the week before I really fell ill with my energy level. It was an effort to tie my shoelaces, I remember that, not wanting to change shoes because I knew it would require an effort."

Molik Says Yes to U.S. Open

Finally some good news for Alicia Molik as she continues to recover from an inner-ear infection.  Her manager says she's feeling great and has applied for a wildcard into the New Haven Pilot Pen tournament the week before the U.S. Open and definitely plans to play the U.S. Open.  She has, however, withdrawn from next week's Toronto tournament to give herself a little more time to train in Australia before her comeback.

Alicia Molik Injury Update

Rotten luck for Alicia  Molik.

From the Sydney Morning Herald: Absence extends to US Open as Molik doubts return

Alicia Molik is in extreme doubt for the US Open.

Paying the price for a premature return from her debilitating inner-ear infection last month in an effort to contest Wimbledon, Molik is in no shape to attempt another comeback...

"She's still fighting the illness," Molik's manager Lisa Chaffey said.

"She can be on the court practising for a session every day, or every second day, but she's still not right.

"She was desperate to get back on the grasscourts for Wimbledon but in hindsight, playing at Birmingham probably set her back.

"She pushed herself a bit hard. It's not guaranteed at all that she'll be at the US Open."

Vestibular Neuronitis

Yep, that's the tennis medical term of the day and what has forced Australia's Alicia Molik to pull out of the French Open.  In layman's terms vestibular neuronitis is a virus that attacks the inner ear and causes all sorts of balance difficulties, clearly a problem for a tennis player.

"She has decided there was just not much point pushing herself to be ready on the clay when she really needs to rest.  She's better off here under the watchful eye of the doctor and now she's probably going to lay low for a good few days and get that rest she needs," said Molik's manager. 

Molik discussed  the problem last week on Australian radio.  "Every time I do just a little bit of exercise I'm really exhausted and my head is spinning.  I've done a bit in the gym but I haven't even been able to get on the court."