Dent inches his way back to tennis prominence

“Hit for a minute,” said another.

Compiled as recently as 2007, Taylor Dent's writings abstractly describe his arduous return to tennis following a spinal fusion operation. The notes were goals, not meant to mark accomplishments. His recovery involved 10 months during which he was confined to bed 23 hours per day.

“The first time I tried to hit tennis balls, I got on the court and I was literally winded after seconds of hitting,” Dent said. “I couldn’t walk. The racquet felt horrible in my hands, and I just sat down on the side of the court and I was almost in tears. I was saying, ‘How am I going to get back to where I was from here?’”

Hit for 20 seconds, then hit for a minute, was the plan.

Less than two years later, Dent, 29, is entered in the Atlanta Tennis Championships, clutching a new set of goals. From learning to walk, he is back to learning how to win.

Ranked No. 95, the four-time ATP World Tour singles champion will face James Blake in a first-round match on Tuesday. Since returning to the game in late 2008, Dent has risen more than 700 places to reach the top 100.

“I have to take a step back sometimes,” said Hopkins, a former WTA Tour player. “You know what? We didn’t think he would play again.”

Before his back problems, Dent finished in the Top 35 from 2003-05, reaching a career-best  21st in 2005, when he advanced to the fourth round at Wimbledon.

Yet when Hopkins watched her husband struggle to shuffle down the street after surgery, a return to form seemed near impossible.

“It was hard to see him go through that,” she said. “But you put on a positive face and tell him it’s getting better.”

Despite her optimistic support, assurance was not enough for Dent. He needed aspirations. Active his entire life, he focused his efforts on life after being confined to bed.

“That was tough for me to get over,” he said. “I battled a little bit of, I guess you could call it, depression. But Jenny helped me write out my goals then, and that’s what I needed -- to wrap my head around the situation.

"I said, ‘Let's start making these goals tiny, then I'll go from there.'"

Dent finally returned to professional tennis in late 2008 when he competed in the USTA Pro Circuit to rebuild his ranking. Last year he advanced to the fourth round in Miami on the ATP World Tour and reached the third round at the U.S. Open before finishing the season by winning two USTA Pro Circuit Challenger titles.

This year he won his first-round match at the Australian Open and reached the second round of Wimbledon.

Though he has had success, Dent's game is still trying to adapt to changes in the men's tennis game. He is improving his baseline game and trying to rely less on his serve and volley.

Hopkins can’t wrap her own head around the situation beyond what has transpired. “Now we have a wonderful son and a wonderful story we can tell him,” she said.

Dent, however, said he's not ready to settle for simply making it back, at least not while goals are still being set and written.

“I’m still in the process of reclaiming my position,” he said. “I haven’t had that light bulb go off that this is it, I’ve made it and this is everything I've worked for. I’m still working to get to that point.”