Noah Rubin’s “Behind The Racquet” • With • Steve Darcis | Tennis 10sBalls

Editor’s note: 10sBalls thanks Noah Rubin for giving us permission to repost these great stories. We wish him and this endeavor the best of luck. Great seeing Noah wearing K-Swiss and playing Solinco Strings.

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“I’m already 35. It is difficult that I am forced to stop, not because I want to, because i am dealing with too much pain. It is not my decision, but it is great to have more time with family. I have two daughters. One is six years old and the other is two. The six year old had a serious heart condition in early 2016. It got to a point where she needed surgery. After scheduling this surgery, I was playing in the Delray Beach quarterfinals, less than a week from the operation. It was okay because the surgery was planned so the date was no surprise. In my head all I could really think about was that but it took my mind away from the results which actually helped me play better. Before entering Delray I knew that if I got to the quarters I would’ve had to pull out. I defaulted from the tournament and I came back for the surgery. It was a really scary time in my family’s life but we got very lucky in the end. The surgery was definitely a bit complicated. They had to stop the heart to work on it and repair it. Her heart was not starting again on its own, so they put a pacemaker in but outside the body. The doctors said that after 10 days if the heart couldn’t start by itself they would have to put one inside the body. We went back after the ten day mark and nothing changed so they did a second surgery to put the pacemaker in place. They said after this amount of time there is no way the heart will start by itself again. 13 days later it did. We call it our miracle. After the surgery it was a long road with the intensive care and everything. I had Davis Cup quarterfinal but I was in the hospital for a month without practice. I didn’t play many tournaments that year but somehow finished at 38 in the world, my career high. I guess it was easy for me to compete, with this different perspective, knowing that nothing compares to my family being healthy.”

— Steve Darcis (darcis_steve)

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