He tries to be philosophical about his long break from tennis, saying he shouldn’t be too harsh on himself, admitting that he was taking the sport too seriously before a back injury in May put him out of action. He tries to put his errant back, which now has screws drilled into the spine, into some sort of profound perspective, but Karan Rastogi is a non-believer in that abstraction called luck. His philosophical front slips up in one random digression during the conversation, as he stresses that it rains because clouds get dense, not because the heavens are meaning to wail and blubber. Rastogi doesn’t wonder too hard about how his comeback — tentatively planned for March-April ‘09 — will eventually shape up. “I’ve always felt that if a player’s results aren’t great, you are either not good enough, or not trying hard enough,” he says. What’s luck got to do with it?An injury he’s carried since he was 14 flared up mid-event this May at Kuwait when the spine and a nerve leading right down to the left leg got themselves into a messy tangle. It wouldn’t let him even walk, forget continuing that semi-final. He underwent surgery in Australia this July by the same surgeon Mahesh Bhupathi consulted earlier, and the rehab has been supervised by physio Amir Takla, who whipped Bhupathi into shape a year ago. Rastogi couldn’t sit in a flight for three months after the operation and hasn’t been on a court since. India’s brightest junior hope at the start of this decade, he was tipped as the boy who would break free of India’s perennial stagnancy in singles. He showed faint glimpses of converting promise to performance two years ago as he played the match of his career against Rafael Nadal in Chennai, holding his own for the better part of the first set against the then world No 2. But, once a choice preference for the ATP wild card when tennis buzzed at the Nungambakkam Stadium, he finds himself far removed from the lead-up to India’s most-anticipated tennis event.The 22-year-old also warns against raising any expectations from the near future. “Don’t expect anything right now because I’m at home, studying and watching movies — every possible film ever made,” he says, making light of the biggest setback of his career. “It’s too early to set goals.”Studying isn’t his pet activity, but it keeps him distracted as he waits to return to Australia for post-healing scans with doctors. There are other diversions. “Meeting school friends unrelated to tennis, and watching films, and sleeping till 12 noon — things I never did when life revolved around tennis.” His ranking has limped down to a nondescript 740 from a career-high 327 in mid-2006, but it isn’t the efficacy of his backhand that has him worried. “The strokes and fitness will happen. I’m scared I might not live up to my own expectations, or I’ll not want it that bad, or I’ll not be patient enough because there’ll be disappointments early,” he says.“Indian tennis has moved ahead with Somdev, and success couldn’t have happened to a nicer person. But I know I’ve missed tennis while I was away, so I’ll be back. I’m not the kind who’ll shy away from dreaming of the top 100, even though I’m quite far away right now.”
