TennisNH

From Baseline To COVID-19 Frontline, Doctor Thacher Continues Serving

21-May-2020 18:31:00 | ATP World Tour

In early April, Dr. Ryan Thacher’s life as a first-year orthopedic surgery resident changed as he knew it.

The 30-year-old works at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan, New York, where he now is as comfortable in the operating room as he once was belting groundstrokes on his way to three All-American honours at Stanford University. Thacher sacrificed a tennis career to pursue medicine, and the California native now works with attending surgeons and higher-ranking residents to treat patients as he hones his craft.

“I feel like I had a very successful career as a tennis player and I have a lot of moments and tournaments that I can look back on fondly and feel good about what I was able to accomplish,” Thacher told ATPTour.com. “I feel fulfilled in the job that I do and excited for the future. I think that’s about as much as anyone can ask for.”

The majority of the work at HSS is elective surgery, and because of that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, roles have changed. Thacher, who once left behind tennis for the bigger picture, temporarily put his surgical training on hold to help combat the spread of coronavirus, the biggest health crisis the world has faced in 100 years. The hospital began repurposing its space into Intensive Care Units in order to accommodate COVID-19 patients. Instead of helping perform surgeries, Thacher is working 12-hour days in the ICU.

“As an orthopedic surgery resident, when all of the coronavirus stuff hit, we were a little bit unsure as to what role we’d be playing… I think a lot of us, myself included, were actually happy to be put in a position where we could be as useful as possible to the other members of the medical team,” Thacher said. “We go through a lot of schooling and take a lot of time to get to where we want to be and I think you have to have that type of perspective to stick with it.”

Thacher is grateful that he and his family have remained healthy, saying, “I almost feel guilty about it, it’s kind of weird.” Every day, he takes his temperature using a thermometer provided by the hospital. Thacher hasn’t spoken to many people outside his family about his experiences.

“We’re obviously in the midst of a time in our lives that nobody’s really ever seen before, and we may never see again. I think it is important just to understand and appreciate the impact of every single lost life as a result of the pandemic,” Thacher said. “It’s easy to get caught up in the statistics of it and often sort of forget the humanistic part of it and having been in the hospital and having helped take care of patients who have suffered through this and seeing firsthand the impact that has on families, I just think it’s an important perspective for everyone to keep.”

[MY POINT]

There are plenty of people who are thankful for the work Thacher has been doing, and he certainly has support in the tennis world, having been a world-class junior who earned a FedEx ATP Ranking.

Thacher chuckles thinking back to it, but nearly 13 years ago, he played his first tour-level tournament when he was only 17. The lefty competed at the Los Angeles ATP Tour event, where he received a qualifying wild card. He won his first-round match, and then got to play another 17-year-old: Kei Nishikori.

“There were some rumblings I recall that he was a really promising up and coming, young player from Japan. I didn’t know much more about him than that, I hadn’t seen him play… I had some fans in the crowd and I remember I came out and I think the first couple of games were pretty close… I actually thought I was playing really well. I was like, ‘Gosh, this guy is so solid,’” Thacher recalled. “I had a pretty good serve and I was serving and volleying a little bit and I felt like I was playing really well, and I was having a really hard time winning points.”

Nishikori won 6-1, 6-4, and less than a year later he would win his first ATP Tour title in Delray Beach. But for Thacher, Nishikori’s on-court presence was not the only memorable aspect of the match.

“He was incredibly polite and really friendly and I actually saw him a few times after that match,” Thacher said. “He remembered me and we would just say, ‘Hello’. That was very meaningful and very telling of what kind of guy he is.”

[TENNIS AT HOME]

Less than two months later, Thacher reached the third round of the US Open boys’ singles draw, losing to current World No. 28 Daniel Evans. Thacher got to practise with former World No. 1 John McEnroe in Flushing Meadows.

“That was a pretty cool experience. That was different. He’s not one of the contemporary guys, but he still hit the ball so clean. He was still really good,” Thacher said. “He was trying to tune his game up and stay sharp. That was obviously, for a younger kid, such an incredible experience.”

The Los Angeles Times earlier that year touted him as a future hope for American tennis. Thacher certainly had the respect of his peers, including future college teammate and current ATP Tour pro Bradley Klahn.

“I remember many players used to make the running joke that he hadn’t made an error since a year earlier in the 2000s,” Klahn said. “I can remember numerous players who were very much doubting [their chances] before stepping on court with Ryan just knowing what he could do to them.”