For Anderson, much of his obsession will be with his own health. Heading into Wimbledon, he has played just 12 matches all year because of the overuse injury that he called golfer’s elbow.
“It’s a little bit tricky, and it’s taken much longer than everybody thought to heal,” Anderson said.
He won the Tata Open Maharashtra in Pune, India, in January, but, after losing in the second round of the Australian Open, Anderson pulled out of three spring hardcourt tournaments and the entire clay-court swing, including the French Open, because of the elbow.
“It’s taken time to build up the load on my serve,” he said. “In the beginning, I could only hit about 30 serves at 50 percent.”
Anderson, who is vice president of the ATP’s 10-member Player Council, said he believed that his skills still had plenty of life left, and he felt strongly that he could win a major — maybe even Wimbledon — and a Masters 1000 title. At the same time, he has become the conscience of professional tennis, supporting causes wherever he goes.
Just before the start of the French Open, while Anderson was visiting family and friends in South Africa, he took to Twitter to support a fellow tennis pro, Madison Keys, in her crusade to rid the internet of viciousness among girls. He publicly applauded her @FearlesslyGirl campaign.
Weeks later, Anderson was asked about the most inspirational women in his own life.
“Obviously, my wife and my mom would be the biggest,” said Anderson, who will have another female to inspire him when his wife, Kelsey, gives birth to a girl, the couple’s first child, in October. “But it’s funny because, growing up, I found inspiration from watching Steffi Graf and Amanda Coetzer, a South African who was in the top 10 for many years. Oh, and then there’s someone I’ve gotten to know over the last few years, Martina Navratilova.”
