Two of Britain’s brightest tennis prospects feared for their future after being left bedbound by coronavirus.
Both Maia Lumsden, 24, and Tanysha Dissanayake, 20, are suffering the long-term effects of the virus, but the former is set to make a gradual return to the game 18 months after first testing positive for covid-19.
The same cannot be said for Dissanayake, who contracted Covid-19 last July and has struggled to do anything in the court since. She told PA news agency: “It’s basically been downhill ever since. For most of this year I’ve been completely bedbound. Just to speak to you today, I didn’t do anything the whole of the morning, didn’t do much yesterday. One of my friends came over the other day. I had to rest for five days after that.”
After contracting the virus, Dissanayake experienced symptoms such as struggling to walk any distance without feeling breathless. Last month, she took to Instagram to provide an update on how the virus has impacted her life and tennis career.
“I went from being a fully able 19yo to a now 20yo finding the easiest chores seemingly impossible to do," she added. "In a day I find myself having to choose between 2 everyday tasks because doing both would leave me so out of breath that I can’t get up. It’s a living nightmare called long covid. How can someone young, fit and healthy be left so incapacitated because of a virus?”
Despite the setback, the Surrey player has remained upbeat and remains focused on moving forward. "Everything really can be taken away from you overnight but it can leave room for some amazing things in the process,” she added.
“No matter what is going on in your life, there is always something to be grateful for. No matter how small!! Your setbacks really do set you up for the best come backs."
Lumsden meanwhile, who reached a career-high ranking of 250 in October 2019, suffered a mild case of coronavirus in October 2020 before becoming very unwell several weeks later. “I was totally bedbound for a number of months,” the Scot said. “The first six months were tough.
"I had a lot of tests done and everything was fine but they just didn’t know a lot about it. There wasn’t any treatment or any medication that I could take. That was the really hard part, just not knowing what was going on and how badly it was affecting my body.
“As the months went on I was obviously desperate to try to get back to tennis so every now and then I would try to start, but it would make me more ill, basically I’d crash and I’d be back bedbound. There was no timeline on when things would get better.” She returned to the court a year after her positive test, but suffered another setback after contracting Covid again last December.
Thankfully she did not have the same long-term effects and next week she will play in the UK Pro League tournament in Warwick. “I’m not quite ready to compete in professional events but I’m going to try and test it out, see if I can handle it,” she said. “I am really excited because it’s been so long but still a bit hesitant because I know I won’t be 100 per cent. I’m hoping I can manage the remaining symptoms that I have.”
