Hip surgery ends Lock’s tennis season

Sport
BY MUNYARADZI MADZOKERE ZIMBABWE Davis Cup team star Courtney Lock will not be able to take part in any international competitions this season after undergoing a successful double hip arthroscopic surgery in South Africa on Tuesday last week.

BY MUNYARADZI MADZOKERE

ZIMBABWE Davis Cup team star Courtney Lock will not be able to take part in any international competitions this season after undergoing a successful double hip arthroscopic surgery in South Africa on Tuesday last week.

Lock, who turned professional a couple of years ago and won six doubles titles playing alongside his older brother Benjamin Lock in 2019, decided to go under the knife after recently experiencing pain in his hips.

The surgery, however, comes at a good time for the promising doubles specialist as there has been little tennis action this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The 23-year-old Courtney and his brother Benjamin had set their sights on a solid season following the resumption of professional tennis activities, but the latter will have to do it alone as the surgery is set to keep his sibling out of the court for the rest of the year.

“After a bunch of MRI’s and X-rays, I was advised that the best thing for my career right now was to have a double hip arthroscopic surgery,” Courtney revealed in a post on Instagram last week.

“The surgery was a success and I’m extremely grateful to my medical team and surgeons. Thank you to everyone who kept me in their thoughts and prayers the last few days also, see you in 2021.”

The former University of Louisville and University of Nevada student was treated at Busamed Gateway Private Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.

Luckily for Zimbabwe, Lock, who is a key member of the Davis Cup team, will have ample time to recover for the next World Group II home tie against China which has been postponed.

Initially the clash was scheduled for September, but the organisers of the Davis Cup decided to push forward their events to 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

But the tennis player is certainly going to miss a number of competitions on the Challenger Tour as well as the ITF Men’s World Tennis Tour between now and the end of the year as he recovers from the surgery.

It also means that there will not be any doubles triumph for the brothers Courtney and Benjamin Lock on the ITF circuit for the first time since 2017.