At peace with turbulent past, one-time phenom on comeback trail

Mirjana Lucic once stood on a Wimbledon baseline staring across at the great Steffi Graf, their semifinal match having advanced to a third set. Lucic had eliminated the great Monica Seles in the third round.

Lucic was making a habit of hanging with and sometimes beating the greats, another women's tennis phenom who at age 15 and playing in her first professional doubles event became the youngest player in history to win an Australian Open title.

Her singles ranking rose to No. 32 a year later, when she was among a young group of female players taking tennis by storm, arriving on the scene with Martina Hingis and Venus and Serena Williams and Anna Kournikova.

There was nothing Lucic couldn't do on a court.

If only her father had stopped beating her off it.

Perhaps then, she wouldn't have disappeared from the game for nearly five years.

Comebacks in women's tennis are more common today than Roger Federer wearing monogrammed clothing. Reasons differ for players departing the pro scene. Some are burned out. Others, like Kim Clijsters, live the fantasy dream of walking away to begin a family and returning to win the U.S. Open. Others have stories far more terrifying.

On Tuesday, as Lucic prepared to serve during a qualifying match at the USTA Pro Circuit Lexus of Las Vegas Open at Red Rock Country Club, a ball bounced from the stands and rolled across the court.

A toddler had discovered his green fuzzy prize under a seat, and, well, what would you expect a 1-year-old to do?

But there was no ball boy to run down the toss.

If she didn't realize it before, Lucic stood a lifetime away from that Wimbledon baseline.

She is not complaining.

"Sometimes, I sit with my family and say, 'I feel like I am 50, like I have lived more than one life,' " Lucic said. "I have been through a lot. But it came to a point where I knew it would either destroy me or I would get stronger from it. This is what happened. Move on. Get stronger. Get better. I really feel good about the person I am today. I'm happier than I have ever been.

"You either come to peace with things or you go insane. I have had a great life in many ways. I have seen the world. I have played legends like Steffi on the biggest stages of the world. Yes, there were tough times. Everyone would like to have a great father, but sometimes it doesn't work this way. So you deal with it. You move on."

She, her mother and four siblings fled Croatia for the U.S. in 1998, not only to escape their war-ravaged homeland but also an oppressive Marinko Lucic. He was a rich and powerful man with an alleged fondness for physically and emotionally abusing the women in his family.

The first time he struck Mirjana, she was 5 and had just lost a match to a player twice her age. His weapon of choice often was a Timberland shoe. She has spoken about the time he beat her with it for 40 minutes in a bathtub for losing in a tournament semifinal, only to then hand her money for ice cream.

She has said he took all but a little more than $20,000 of her career earnings.

Tennis history unfortunately is filled with tales of overbearing and at times abusive parents, perhaps more than any other sport. It's no big secret: Many tennis parents have proven to be nightmares.

Some players can overcome it and some can't and some go away for years before the fire begins to burn again. Lucic is 27 and doesn't just face a long ways back to her lofty status. She faces a mountain the size of Everest.

She is ranked No. 373 and had to qualify for the $50,000 main draw event at Red Rock. On Tuesday, she rallied from down 4-1 in the first set to eliminate Ani Mijacika, 6-4, 6-2. On Wednesday, in a first-round main draw match, she dismissed fifth-seeded Anna Tatishvili, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.

Lucic is second up on Court 5 today, when she plays unseeded Meng Yuan of China at about 11 a.m.

It is rare to wander out to such an event and watch a player who many believed could have been ranked in the Top 10 for years and years. Lucic was that good at one time, a tall, athletic, powerful force in the game. She had Grand Slam talent. She was special.

"I feel like I'm playing the best I have in a really long time," Lucic said. "I'm starting to believe more. It hasn't exactly been easy trying to come back after so many years. But I just felt there were still some great results inside me. I don't feel like tennis is finished for me.

"I'm doing the right things. I have surrounded myself with positive people. The hard part is being patient and waiting for those results, but I missed tennis like you can't imagine. I would kill to be at Wimbledon again and feel that energy on that stage.

"This is about me now and no one else. If I didn't love it so much, I would have stayed away and lived my life and been fine. But I am so happy to be back. I am loving tennis again.

"I am loving life again."

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He also can be heard weeknights from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. on "The Sports Scribes" on KDWN-AM (720) and www.kdwn.com.