The world No. 2 first sustained the injury in mid-2009, and she was forced to pull out of the season-ending championships in Doha in October. Then, after spending the off-season rehabbing and recuperating, she was back to telling the chair umpire midmatch that she couldn’t go on at the Australian Open. 

What now for Safina? More rehab. And to be honest, I can’t help but think that that may be a good thing. While Safina has had a couple of great seasons on tour, her success has been a mixed bag. Yes, she reached three Grand Slam finals, but she also fell apart in all of them. Yes, she reached No. 1, but she spent press conference after press conference defending that ranking. A forced break might do her good both physically and mentally. Maybe she could even be next in line for an extended layoff, like the ones Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin took. In the April issue of TENNIS, Chris Evert makes “The Case for the Hiatus,” saying that players should be allowed to take time off without having to officially retire.

Clijsters’ main reason for calling it quits, aside from the decision to have a family, was a laundry list of injuries (wrist, back, hip) that made it hard for her to show up on court prepared. “The constant injuries and continual rehabilitation…it makes it all even more difficult to go on,” she said when she retired.

As for Henin, her decision was seen as more emotional and due to burnout. Weeks before she was to defend her French Open title, which she had won the previous three years, she lost the last match of her first career to Safina in Berlin. A week later she announced her retirement, saying, “I really fought these last few months to try for a miracle and to get back this desire and flame I had in me. But I finished thinking it through after Berlin. At the end of last week, I realized I was at the end of my road.”

It’s been almost two years since that breakout match for Safina, and now I find myself thinking Safina’s woes are similar to both the Belgians’. Her struggles are with both her body and her emotions. But then again, her career doesn’t exactly rival Clijsters' and especially Henin’s first careers. Here’s hoping her injury layoff will be enough to get her back to the top of her game and give her a mental break so she can enjoy herself on court. 

If her attitude in the off-season says anything, she’s going to fight to get back to the tour as soon as possible: “I’m trying to recover and get fit for 2010, so I can hopefully show you all some good tennis again!” she wrote to fans on her website. “Don’t give up on me. I’ll do my best!” We’ll see if she’s ready to do her best in Miami, or if this will be a more extended break. 

I weigh 10 kilos more than I should. I play a lot of tennis and soccer every day but I don’t lose weight. What diet I should follow?

I am 56 years old, play tournament tennis, and play on all the USTA teams I can get on. As I get older I find it harder and harder to keep my fitness level. I’m 5-foot-10 and 190 pounds. Need to be at least 10 to 15 pounds lighter, don’t you think?

I am a high school varsity tennis player. I am 5-foot-9 and am overweight. What kind of routines can I do to help me build a toned body to compete at a higher level for my final season in high school?

Everyone knows that carrying around extra pounds can hinder you on a tennis court, so it’s understandable that these players are looking to lose some weight. But how much do they need to lose for optimal performance? It’s a question no one can answer with certainty, according to a recent New York Times article. Weighing too much can slow you down, but weighing too little can also be detrimental, causing weakness or premature fatigue. There hasn’t been much study in the area, and peoples’ bodies vary so much that the only way many serious athletes have found the weights at which they perform their best is through trial and error.

Andre Agassi, along with his longtime trainer, Gil Reyes, discovered that Agassi’s best weight was between 178 and 182 pounds, according to the article. How did he decide that? “It was all about him feeling strong and fit,” Reyes is quoted as saying. 

I know, I know, professional athletes’ lives revolve around their bodies. They can put tons of time and energy into being vigilant of their weights. But feeling confident and ready to compete is pretty important on court, and it doesn’t hurt in life in general, either. So, my best advice for all those looking to drop some pounds: Stay active and eat healthy, counting calories from time to time to make sure you’re not eating more than you’re burning off. But know that being thin doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be a better player. Being the right weight for optimal performance does. Take a tip from Agassi and strive for the weight where you feel “strong and fit.”

It doesn't seem offensive at first. But as you drink another sip from your travel mug and take a closer look, your brain catches up to your eyes . . . 

Yuck! That’s not Gatorade in that glass. That’s human fat. Where would the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene get human fat? It can’t be real. That would probably be illegal. Did they make it? Is it animal fat? Gross. Good morning, subway riders.

That’s what went through my head the first time I saw NYC’s shock ads against sugary beverages. Sports drinks aren’t the only ones targeted. There are also ads that depict what look like a logo-less Coke and Snapple iced-tea bottles pouring out blubbery globs. The PSAs started adorning ad spaces in subway cars in August, after New York State dropped a proposal to add an extra tax on sugary beverages, and they've been disgusting passengers ever since. Maybe they’ve also been making New Yorkers think twice about downing a soda or other sugar-packed drink.

The ads advocate for drinking water, seltzer or low-fat milk instead of the sugary stuff. Those seem like reasonable options for everyday, but what about when you’re playing tennis? If you’re sweating it out in a long match, a sports beverage might be the right thing to reach for. It will give you quick carbs for energy and replace the electrolytes that you lose through sweat. 

But when you’re not working hard, a sports drink can indeed contribute to you “drinking yourself fat.” An 8-ounce serving of the original Gatorade has 50 calories and 14 grams of sugar. If you’re not burning that off through exercise, your body will store those calories as fat. There are other options out there, from low-calorie and naturally sweetened electrolyte replacement drinks to plain and mineral water.

For an in-depth look at when you should drink what kind of beverage, check out Alyssa Shaffer’s sports-drink breakdown “The Battle of the Beverages,” which was published in the March issue of TENNIS. One of her sources, Susan Kleiner, Ph.D., R.D., owner of High Performance Nutrition in Mercer Island, Wash., says, “These are called sports drinks because you’re only supposed to drink them when you’re active.” Take a look at those ads for some scary thoughts of what might happen if you routinely drink them when you’re not.

A couple of tweets that caught my eye were these from early December: “Esther told me I have to eat anti inflammatory foods like fish and berries. Apparently steak is one of the food that causes inflammation,” Venus Williams tweeted. “So its kind of a no no now. I am trying to resist ribeye’s. Its hard bc i luv em. But tomatoes are good, they are anti inflammatory.”

Ah, the sacrifices pro athletes must make (I'm talking about the steak, not the Twitterized grammar). “Esther” is Esther Lee, Williams’ trainer, and she’s giving good advice. According to American Dietetic Association spokesperson Lona Sandon, M.Ed., R.D., anti-inflammatory foods can help promote muscle-tissue repair and rebuilding. “There’s no official anti-inflammatory diet,” Sandon says, “but certainly athletes who are training at the level of a Venus Williams are putting a lot of stress on their bodies.”

Sandon says that anti-inflammatory foods tend to be high in anti-oxidants, meaning they prevent oxygen from damaging cells. Some examples are fruits with deep colors, like blueberries, raspberries and concord grapes, and tart cherry juice. (Check out the January/February issue of TENNIS to read more about the anti-inflammatory effects of tart cherry juice). Omega 3 fatty acids, such those found in walnuts, flaxseed oil, and fish like tuna and salmon, also have been found to be anti-inflammatory.

Sandon says that if you stick to the dietary guidelines, which include two 6-ounce servings of fatty fish per week and 5 cups a day of a combination of fruits and vegetables, you should be getting a good amount of anti-inflammatories in your diet. “It’s about prevention,” she says. “They’re good, healthy foods, so you should eat them regularly. Don’t wait until you’re completely inflamed and then eat a bowl of blueberries and think it’s going to be like you took ibuprofen.”

And as for foods that may promote inflammation, like steak? It’s all about moderation. As Williams tweeted a few days afterward, sometimes you have to treat yourself: “Awe, I have to get a steak today, I can’t help it! I have to celebrate the dolphins win!”

I was advised to roll my legs on the foam cylinder to loosen up the tight muscles and bands of my legs, which had hardened in years of quick-burst sports and lots of missed stretching sessions. They’re not the most intuitive motions, but basically you use your body weight to push the foam roller deep into different parts of your legs. There are a bunch of videos showing it online, so go to YouTube and search “foam roller” to see it in action.

Foam rolling isn’t just for runners. Tennis players can also benefit from it, as Victoria Azarenka’s trainer, Mark Wellington told me for an article in our August issue. Azarenka uses a foam roller to loosen up her legs on regeneration days, but also in warm-ups or cool-downs if she has tight spots. “If trigger points stay tight and the muscles aren’t functioning properly, down the road that can lead to more problems,” Wellington told me. “[Foam rolling] can often take care of those right when it happens.”

So keep your muscles limber and save money on massages by trying self-massage with a foam roller. It works for me. I now jog in the park regularly (though in the winter it’s sometimes not as regular) and only occasionally have knee pain. 

For many, like holiday creep, the wintertime decline in eating and exercise habits has already taken hold. It’s hard to fight those cravings for cold-weather comfort foods and keep up your workouts in the waning daylight. It’s times like these when we all need to do our best to take control, especially considering the loads of goody-filled holiday parties and family gatherings fast approaching. How should we do it? One solution is to keep a diary—a food diary. 

A weight-loss study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in 2008 found that people lost twice as much weight when they kept a daily log of their food intake. "I always tell clients to keep calorie counts," says Jeff Michaud, tennis coach, trainer and owner of Fitness By Jeff in Atlanta. It helps you hold yourself accountable for what you put in your body and adjust what you eat so you consume a reasonable number of calories. 

I wouldn't recommend keeping a food diary on big celebration days like Thanksgiving—that would be agony. But between holidays, jot down what you eat each day and occasionally tally the calories you’ve consumed. If you want a more high-tech option than a pen and paper, try a website like calorieking.com, fitday.com or thedailyplate.com, where you can search for and log the foods you’ve eaten. Remember, the more you stay on top of your holiday food intake, the less you'll feel compelled to set unattainable New Year's diet resolutions.

But of course H1N1 is not something to be taken lightly. The World Health Organization announced today that it is now the dominant influenza strain around the globe. More than a million people have been infected in the U.S. The scary thing about H1N1 is that there are many cases where it has led to complications causing more serious health issues and even death, especially among those with existing health issues. Most people, however, recover on their own and experience H1N1 as a regular case of the flu. That seems to be how the illness has gone for Haas: “It was a shock for me,” he said in the German newspaper Bild. “I’ve calmed down now because although swine flu is a very strong form of flu, you can quickly overcome it when you’re in good physical condition like I am.”

To prevent H1N1, avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth, be religious about hand-washing, and keep your distance from people who are sick. If you get sick, the Centers for Disease Control recommends that you stay home until at least 24 hours after your fever is gone without the aid of fever-reducing drugs. Haas seems to be following that advice. He pulled out of Basel this week and will probably miss next week’s Paris Masters. Get well soon, Tommy.

I also wanted to take this chance to thank you for your feedback on last week’s blog and pass along this related article on nonprofits' efforts to replace junk food with more quality, fresh foods at convenience stores in areas where there aren't other shopping options. Regardless of your stance in the weight debate, I think most can appreciate what these organizations are doing. And as an update to the Slate article I linked to, Chris Christie ended up winning the governor’s race in New Jersey on Tuesday. I guess his weight wasn’t such a factor, after all.

Amid all the back and forth, a review came out in September that looks into the basis behind the claim that people can be “fat and fit.” The idea, first studied at Dallas’ Cooper Institute, a nonprofit that promotes fitness, is that it’s better to be overweight and active than to be sedentary and thin. The review shows that, even if an overweight person doesn’t lose weight, exercise has a positive effect on inflammation in the body, insulin sensitivity, harmful visceral, or belly fat, and cholesterol. Improvements in each of those areas lead to better overall health and fewer risk factors.

So even if you’re packing a few extra pounds, try not to lose hope or obsess about your weight. You can still be generally healthy as long as you maintain an active lifestyle and eat a balanced diet. Get in your exercise by regularly hitting the court.