EXCLUSIVE
Cancer Survivor Plans To Come Back in 2003

Corina Morariu: temporarily sidelined
Philadelphia back in the tennis business

By Sandra Harwitt
tennisreporters.net

Fred Mullane Camerawork USA, Inc.

For many players, a diagnosis of shoulder tendinitis early this fall, an ailment that would keep them on the sidelines for the remainder of the season, might upset or totally frustrate them. But not Corina Morariu, who took the news in stride and just methodically set about rehabilitation and looking forward to 2003.

Morariu fought the greatest fight of her 24 years from May 2001 until returning to the game in July 2002 and it wasn't a simple case of tendinitis. The former No. 1 in doubles battled acute promyelocytic leukemia and endure numerous rounds of chemotherapy before the disease was declared in remission and she decided to return to the tennis court. From that life threatening position, Morariu has come to the realization that other setbacks, such as shoulder tendinitis, are just a part of life that need to be dealt with in an efficient fashion.

"I've kind of learned to take things one step at a time, especially after what's happen to me," Morariu told tennisreporters.net from her home in Boca Raton, Fla. "I'm working out and getting rehab on my shoulder three times a week."

Morariu was hoping to follow her summer stint with the Philadelphia Freedoms, a World Team Tennis squad, and a couple of matches played, including a first round encounter with Serena Williams at the US Open, by playing this fall. While she hoped to be regaining her form on the tour this autumn, she isn't all that unhappy to be at home with family. Her husband, Australian Andrew Turcinovich, her coach from when she was 15-years-old and her husband since November 1999, is no longer working with her full-time, a mutual decision reached between the two. Nowadays, Turcinovich stays at home to work at Ballen Isles, an upscale country club community in Palm Beach.

HOME LIFE IS FUN
"Being home is fun, especially since I haven't been home in a long time," Morariu said. "I'm having a good time being home, seeing my husband and we have a little dog – a mini dachshund named Milo – spending time with my family. I have a little nephew and am spending time with him. We go to the movies. That's what is the most fun to me."
According to Morariu, dealing with cancer changes your viewpoint on a great deal about life, although it doesn't change the essence of who you are.

"Obviously, after being through what I have, winning or losing is really not the end of the world," Morariu explains. "I always felt like I had a pretty good grip on reality and how to deal with being on the tour and that tennis was never the be all and end all of my existence. But things that seemed really important a couple of years ago are more put into perspective. I still want to do well and still want to succeed and see all my work pay off, but I know that if things don't work out with tennis, there are much worse things that can happen to you.

"I don't think you could go through something like this and not have changed a little bit. I feel like I'm the same person, but some little things have changed, and obviously, my outlook on certain things have changed – little subtleties like that are different."

Taking that into account, Morariu, who won the '99 Wimbledon doubles title with Lindsay Davenport, said being on the tour the second time around rated higher than the first time.

"I've really enjoyed myself," Morariu said. "I think I enjoy myself more now than I did in the past. It's been very challenging and been an emotional roller coaster but I'm pretty happy with the way things have gone so far and kind of looking forward to getting good training at the end of this year. I'm planning to play a full schedule next year."

Philadelphia back in the tennis business
The City of Brotherly Love will once again host a tennis tournament – a familiar tournament known as The Advanta Championships.

When the WTA Tour decided to move the year-end WTA Championships to Germany starting in the 2001 season, IMG quickly sold the date to their Philadelphia event, a long time tune-up tournament to the Championships that used to be housed in New York's Madison Square Garden. After only one year in Germany, the WTA realized the season-ending Championships should return to the US and made a deal with the Staple Center in LA to host the event. That decision finalized, IMG immediately rushed to buy the Hamburg tournament, a clay court tune-up for Roland Garros, when it went up on the auction block and reinstate The Advanta Championships in its regular slot.

IMG was not the only entity trying to purchase the Hamburg tournament when it went up for sale. Jim MacIngvale of Houston, who along with his wife, Linda, hosts the men's US Clay Court Championships at their Westside Tennis Club, made a bid on the event. The MacIngvales originally started their involvement in tennis when they sponsored the '95 Virginia Slims of Houston before the Slims series was canceled because tobacco companies were no longer allowed to lend their name to sporting events. Besides, for the US Clay Court Championships, the MacIngvales brought the Davis Cup quarterfinal against Spain to Houston this past April and will host the men's year-end Tennis Masters Cup for the 2003-04 season.

"We tried to buy the Hamburg sanction but the people in Philadelphia beat us out," Jim MacIngvale told tr.net. "We're mostly involved in men's tennis, but we'd love to bring a women's event back to Houston and we'll keep trying. We'd like to run it either a week before or after our men's event, or even simultaneously, as a tune-up for the French Open."