Knowing Myself: Tennis Pro Ryan Harrison
By Ryan Harrison (as told to Elisabeth Deffner)
Tennis pro Ryan Harrison was the tenth person in the history of the Association of Tennis Professionals Tour to win a match before turning 16 and the third-youngest person since 1990 to win an ATP-level match. Now 17, he is jumping back into his career after having to take several months off due to a back injury.
This is my first tournament in about seven months, since injuring my back—and I’m ready to go. I’m really excited to get back. When I first started getting sore, I didn’t know exactly what the problem was. I went to the chiropractor for a little bit of adjustment. I took some Advil and just kept going.
But it just kept getting worse and worse and worse. By the time it was unbearable to play, I was in a first-round qualifying match at the U.S. Open. By the end of that match, walking was troublesome; I had to take the subway 20 minutes home—and I couldn’t sit down on the subway.
I went to a back specialist and had a CT scan done. The results showed I had a stress fracture—the disc was broken all the way through.
That was tough.
I was in a body brace for two months. I had to wear it 23 hours a day, and I had to sleep with it on. After that, I had a of couple months of rehab.
It just kind of makes you appreciate everything you’ve got so much more. Practice can become routine after doing it for so long; when you have a serious injury, you realize how much you appreciate the work you put into things—and just being out here!
I started playing when I was 2, though I don’t really remember it. My dad was working as the head pro at a private club in Shreveport, Louisiana, where I was born. I wanted to go to work with Dad, so I got a little racquetball racket and went to the big backboard there. I had some decent hand-eye coordination, and my dad started working with me. By the time I was 4 or 5, I could make contact and get the ball cleanly over from the baseline.
 I started playing in tournaments. When I was 8 years old, I entered the Little Mo Nationals—the only competition for little kids. I entered in the 9-and-under, so I was playing against kids older than me from across the country, and I ended up winning that. That was when I really knew I could play as one of the top players in the world. You never really know how good you are until you compare yourself with other players.
Now I’m 17; I’ve already turned pro and am playing on a tour. The goal is to be the best in the world—hopefully number one. I’ve always had that type of personality: if I’m in the top 5, that means there are four people better than me. I don’t like thinking there’s somebody who can do it better than I can.
I think a player’s lying if he says he doesn’t look at the rankings or care about the rankings. But you do your workout, stretch, take care of the things you can control—and the ranking will take care of itself. If you have something that sets you back, such as my back problem, you can’t get obsessed with your ranking or how much someone is moving ahead of you. You try to focus on what you can control.
Like when I was recovering from my injury, I’d have days every couple of weeks or so during which it would start to get frustrating because I physically couldn’t do what I wanted to do. I had to understand it was a situation I couldn’t control and do everything I could control. For me at that time, it was eating healthy, trying to stay in shape, trying to keep at my playing weight. I try to stay at 165, 170—I didn’t want to come back and be 185. Normally I go to Subway and get a foot-long, but during those months I’d get a six-inch. I cut out the candy and everything. When I came back, I only had to lose about five pounds; I lost that in about five or six days.
I know my goals; I know what I’ve sacrificed up to this point to achieve those goals. One mistake can ruin an entire career, an entire reputation. Drugs and stuff—that’s something I’ve never considered doing. It’s just not good for you.
I guess the main thing is being mentally secure with yourself and happy with the person you are—not worrying as much about what other people think you are, as what you think of yourself.
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