Melbourne - Tennis sometimes helps you live. Argentine Lucas Arnold felt something like that when his world crumbled: cancer and the loss of a testicle made him think that he might have reached the end of his life. "I had the same thing as (cyclist) Lance Armstrong. In fact, I read his book, it helped me a lot," Arnold told Deutsche Presse- Agentur in Melbourne.
After fighting for his life in 2006-2007, at age 33 he has returned to the love of his life: doubles.
Blond, tanned, thin, Arnold shows up in unexpected places around Melbourne Park. He arrived for the last minutes of fellow-Argentine David Nalbandian's training, to return his serve and propose that they play together in Barcelona. Nalbandian laughed and did not reply.
He spent an hour exchanging shots with the Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova, one of the most beautiful players in the WTA circuit.
"Hantuchova beat me to death, I can't stand her. I used to be able to run differently," he admitted, before focusing. "But I am really proud, because there came a point in chemotherapy when I couldn't even walk."
Arnold was a happy, successful doubles player in the summer of 2006. But he was kidding himself. He had known for a while that there was something strange in one of his testicles, and he could not face it. He finally gave up everything else, returned to Buenos Aires and underwent surgery within days.
"There is no awareness (of this problem) in Argentina. When I had a tomography taken before the operation I was ashamed to say why I was there. The girl who took it calmed me down, told me I could not imagine how many men go through the same thing. But it is a macho society, people don't say it," the tennis player explained.
Of British descent, Arnold speaks perfect English and started to play tennis at age 2. He ranked as high as 21 in doubles, with 15 titles, and was 77th in the world in singles. His elder brother, Patricio, was also a tennis player.
For years he was part of the Argentine Davis Cup team, and he hopes to return.
"During these last three years my life was a rollercoaster, I even separated from my wife, Yanina, a couple of times, but we are fine now," he said.
He is not quite fit physically, because his lungs are still suffering from the chemotherapy. However, after what he experienced, he feels that nothing is really a problem.
Following surgery on August 2006, he travelled to the US Open, where he played with fellow-Argentine Agustin Calleri and lost in the first round . There, he decided to retire from tennis, and went as far as making the relevant announcement.
Shortly afterwards, back in Argentina, cancer returned. Five months of chemotherapy, with all its consequences, ended in February, when doctors confirmed he had recovered.
He tried anthroposophical therapies - he has practised yoga since he was 19 - and he searched within himself for answers that he previously lacked. Now he looks at tennis through very different eyes, for example.
"Life in the changing-room is very competitive. You have no real friends. It's difficult," he said.
But he took it back and did mention some friends, like fellow Argentine tennis players Mariano Hood or Gaston Etlis.
Arnold drew a curious parallel. Once, when he was very young, his father advised him not to hit the ball between his legs, with back to the net.
"My dad told me I could hit myself in the testicles. And I ended up having cancer there... I think unresolved traumas sometimes come back... Look what happened to Hood, with his trauma over being bald, who tested positive for doping over a hair tonic," Arnold recalled.
In late September he made his return playing a Futures tournament, the lowest category in the ATP circuit. The Argentine federation granted him a wild card, but they made him play a 16-year-old junior. He got to the second round, and earned a 90-dollar prize - quite something for a player who had accumulated 1.5 million dollars over 14 years as a professional.
Now Arnold is a free player, set to live his life with joy. He has no contracts, and he dresses with whatever he can.
"Even with what other players discard. I took a couple of things from the basket in the changing-room, in which they leave used clothes for charity," he said.
And he has a dream, a difficult goal but one he still hopes for: playing at the Beijing 2008 Olympics.
"I have never been at the Olympics. In Sydney 2000, given my ranking, I should have gone, but they did not take me. Now I am going to do everything I can to be called," Arnold stressed.
