King’s return gains pace

JOELLE KING should be back running by the middle of next month and is eyeing a return to the court in March as she continues to progress well from an Achilles injury.

After rupturing her tendon during the final of the national championships in August, King said she felt lucky the ailment was mending nicely, but was also confident she had done everything in her power to make a swift return.

After having to spend four weeks inactive, then with a moon boot on for nearly three months, King has been up and walking the past fortnight, and even managed to hit some balls on court last week from a stationary position.

‘‘I felt like a little kid again getting on there,’’ said King, who has been mixing up her training, with rowing, swimming and biking.

‘‘You think, at the start, ‘Oh there’s so many things I can’t do’, but once you’ve been starved of exercise for a few weeks you soon find the things that take the pressure off it.’’

King, 26, said that along the way she had met plenty of people worse off than her, so it put things in perspective.

‘‘The fact that I’m going to have another chance to actually do what I love and try and reach my goals again, that’s pretty special, when you meet people who are going through terminal cancer and things like that.’’

And there is a steely determination from King to come back with a bang, and be a better player than before, having reached No 4 in the world rankings.

‘‘It’s also just made me know that I’m not ready to stop yet, and I’ve got a few more good years left in me I think,’’ she said.

‘‘I guess because I’ve been put on the sideline I don’t want to waste any time, it’s going to be a lot of quality, and I just want to do everything to the best of my ability, even more so than what it was before. So it’s real exciting times actually.’’

In her comeback, King plans to play some local men’s tournaments, before one of the biggest events on the calendar – the British Open in May.

‘‘I thought it was quite realistic that I could be back to play that. I didn’t want to rush it, I wanted to fix it properly and come back somewhere near where I left off, or who knows, even better. I don’t want to turn up and just make up the numbers when I go in May, I want to feel like I’m actually going to be a contender.’’

King said it was encouraging how other players had hit the ground running after six months out, with Egypt’s Ramy Ashour one of them – taking out the men’s world championship title last month.

King’s world ranking has dropped to No 12 but players who are out injured for six months or longer get a pegged ranking seven places below where they were when injury struck.

So when King returns she will slot in at No 11, with six tournaments available to her to use that ranking, with performances in those events then dictating where she’s ranked after that.

While forced off the court, King has enjoyed being able to spend a rare long stint at home, but suspected her husband might have had enough of her by now.

‘‘It’s been nice just to be a normal wife for a while,’’ she said. ‘‘Even when we got married I think I flew in two days before and then flew out like two weeks later or something.’’

King has spent plenty of time watching squash – even up at 4.30am a couple of times to see her New Zealand team-mates compete at the world team championships – and has thought a lot about her game.

‘‘I’ve learnt quite a lot, just from a different perspective... You’ve got the opportunity to sit and watch your opponents and pick up on things.’’