Alisa Kleybanova says missing competitive tennis was what drove her back to the courts after a 10-month absence while she was battling Hodgkin's lymphoma.
"I missed the competition a lot," the Russian told reporters in Miami. "I've never had such a big break in my tennis. The thing I like the most about tennis is the tournaments, the matches—it's not that I don't like hitting tennis balls, because I do love that, but my favorite things are the results, the wins, just all the excitement and emotions during my matches. It was probably that feeling that kept me fighting through all the problems I had. That's why I'm back in such a short time and really excited for my first round here. My dream has come true right now—I'm back on the court again."
The former Top 20 player will face Johanna Larsson in the first round of Miami. She added that being a pro athlete helped her recover.
"Since I was a kid I've been used to hard work and discipline, and also there are a lot of things you have to overcome when you do this," Kleybanova said. "You have a team around you, but you don't have your family around you a lot, so all your life you learn how to deal with things by yourself. And when you have a huge problem, you're used to it—even though this was completely different to anything I am used to, I was still mentally very motivated to overcome it, which obviously helped me a lot to get through it."