Christian Harrison: Despite eight surgeries, I never gave up on my dreams

American doubles standout writes a My Point first-person essay about the obstacles he has overcome to compete among the very best in the sport.

Corinne Dubreuil/ATP Tour

Christian Harrison is a Nitto ATP Finals qualifier for the first time. By Christian Harrison

I was in excruciating pain. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t do anything.

I was a 14-year-old ranked higher than anyone else in the world my age. I had a career in front of me I always dreamed of and today, I am a 31-year-old getting ready to compete with Evan King in the Nitto ATP Finals for one of the biggest titles in our sport.

But as I think about my debut at this event, I have reflected on my long battle to get here

Seventeen years ago, I was dealing with a bone infection in my left femur. At the time, all I knew was that my leg was hurting. It felt like I had a constant cramp in my leg, but it was the bone that was actually hurting.

It first popped up when I was seven or eight years old. It just so happened to flair up when I was 14 and in the span of four weeks the infection doubled in size.

They misdiagnosed it a couple times, so figuring out that it was a bone infection was difficult and a whole process in itself. Once it started hurting we knew something was going on and learning I had a bone infection was almost a relief.

Bone infections can get serious if they get into your hip. Before modern medicine, they amputated legs whenever they were that painful. Medicine has advanced a lot, but that’s how much pain it normally can cause. Luckily they have better ways to treat it now and I considered myself pretty lucky at that point. I was able to get great care.

Nick Bollettieri was the one who set us up at the Mayo Clinic, so that I was able to travel with my family to get treatment. We ended up taking care of it with surgery and I had a smooth recovery from there — it was simply a matter of time to heal.

But that was only the beginning. When I was turning 19, I tore a labrum in my hip. I ended up having multiple surgeries. I had two hip surgeries, a shoulder surgery, a wrist surgery and then two adductor surgeries all within a year of each other.

Those kept me out for close to three years. I kept having ongoing problems from having so many surgeries and over the course of the next few years, I missed another year and a half here, another year there.

In those moments, the most important thing is to find ways to keep yourself happy and positive. I kept thinking that things can always be worse. It was obviously tough, but I never lost my motivation. I always found ways to keep my spirit high. I wanted to keep going and you tell yourself there is a way it can be done.

My brother Ryan was still playing and he was very successful, which helped. Once World No. 40 in singles and No. 16 in doubles, I would stay interested by watching him because I wanted to be there by his side. I always looked up to Ryan and was so proud of him. That kept me motivated, around the sport and with something to strive for.

The hardest wasn’t when I wasn’t playing, but when I started playing again. It takes a while to get up to the standards that you expect for yourself. But I always knew that I was never going to lose the joy of playing the game.

From age 15, I spent close to nine years not hitting tennis balls for the most part. But I was eventually able to reach a pretty high level. I climbed to the Top 200 in the PIF ATP Rankings and made the semi-finals of an ATP Tour event in Delray Beach as a qualifier in 2021.

I qualified for a major main draw for the first time in 2016 aged 2022, did it again at Wimbledon two years later and eventually made it back to a Slam main draw at SW19 in 2022.

During my first-round match against Jay Clarke, I hurt my right foot pretty badly. I was up two sets to love and he took a bathroom break, which gave me plenty of time to think about it.

I was already having an ongoing problem, stood up and couldn’t put weight on my foot. I had to get it wrapped and take something to get through it. I was able to win the match, but had to withdraw early in my second-round match.

Photo: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images

It turns out that I had a chip in my heel. I was crying after I won the first match because I knew I probably needed a long layoff and I had already thought if I had another one, I was going to start playing doubles. After one of the best moments of my career, I had to sit and do nothing. That was when I decided to change my focus.

I was young enough that I still believed I could come back and I definitely wanted to. I love playing tennis so much. I gain great satisfaction from just hitting the ball and always have. That’s the reason why guys like Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka are still playing. They don’t have to, but they love tennis. That’s how I feel.

I began playing full-time doubles last season and now, Evan and I are competing in the Nitto ATP Finals alongside the best players in the world. Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and more are all here.

To be in this situation, it makes me appreciate it. To play big matches in stadiums like Inalpi Arena makes it so fun. It makes waking up early and the days when you’re tired and you have to battle just to feel good and get to the court, just so you can love playing. Then you’re here. It’s a good reminder that everything you’re doing is worth it for your own reasons.

I didn’t want to give up and accept that injuries or surgeries would be the reasons I stopped doing something.

I don’t know what the future holds, but I’m thankful to be here and I’m trying to do everything I can to play as long as I can.

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