October 24, 2009 - Is this a new Ashley Harkleroad?
By Charles Bricker

It's 1:30 in the afternoon in Malibu, Calif., and while husband and coach Chuck
Adams is out checking on his apartment house real estate, Ashley Harkleroad is
at home along the couple's personal stretch of beach at the edge of the Pacific
Ocean, reliving her already well-traveled 24 years of life and playing
kitchee-koo with 7-month-old Charlie.

It's too cute. But, then, so is Ashley, who has packed a lot of living into two
wild decades on this planet, yet managed not to lose that girl-next-door look.

Motherhood fits her beautifully -- so beautifully that she's having serious
thoughts about not returning from her one-year pregnancy leave from the Sony
Ericsson WTA Tour. If she does come back, and the plan is to return at Memphis
and then Indian Wells in March of next year, it won't be because of some
infatuation with the game. It will be for something far more basic.

I asked Ash how seriously she wants to play tennis again.

"If I come back . . . I don't know that I will be able to . . . Or if I really
care about that." That was her initial, disjointed series of thoughts, but she
quickly gathered herself and laid it out with a bit more cohesion.

"You know, it's really hit me the last couple days, this decision. I wouldn't
mind having another baby. I'm really enjoying what I'm doing. Chuck and I are
raising Charlie alone. We're not getting any help and I don't want any help. But
the prize money on tour is up 33 percent. If I want to come back just to get the
money, it's like 'here's a little gift we'll give you.' It wouldn't be so bad
and I can always have another baby, whether it's in six months or a year and a
half from now."

For someone who has barely cracked the top 40, Harkleroad is one of the most
widely known of American women players, and not always because of her tennis.

She was an ingenue at 6. Eastern Bowl 18s junior champion at 14. Revealing
tennis outfit at the U.S. Open at 15. French Open juniors runner-up at 17 with
wins over Marion Bartoli and Svetlana Kuznetsova. Married far too young to
tennis pro Alex Bogomolov at 19. Divorced a few years later. Hit her stride at
22 with a win over Dinara Safina in Australia. And then the internal bleeding at
Key Biscayne a couple months later and the surgery to remove her right ovary.
Followed, let's not forget to mention, by the nude photos in Playboy magazine.
And, next up they hope, a network reality show to run some time in 2010,
depicting the challenge of raising a child and playing professional tennis.

There was a time when she didn't think there would be a child to raise.

"I was vomiting in the training room, crawling around the floor. At some point,
I just said, 'OK, something isn't right here and I feel like I'm dying,' " she
recalled those agonizing moments in March of 2008 at the Sony Ericsson Open.
"And when they told me about the operation, my first thought was, 'Does this
mean I can't have babies.' "

Ashley turned to little Charlie -- Charles IV to be perfectly accurate -- and in
that sing-song voice parents use with infants, told him, "That's right. You're
my little miracle baby, aren't you."

Anyone who has coached Ashely -- Jose Luis Clerc, Jay Berger and of course
husband Chuck -- will tell you the talent is there. What isn't clear is if there
is enough passion for the game.

"Motherhood is awesome," said Harkleroad. "This is so much better than playing
tennis. Just watching Charlie. He has so much stamina it's ridiculous. We put
him in this bouncer and he can bounce for an hour, as high as he can go. He
stares so intently. You really want to know what's going on in his mind."

Another digression to the little guy. "We're talking about you, silly," she
giggles at him.

If she does come back, will the tennis public, and the non-tennis media as well,
allow her to be Ashley Harkleroad, athlete. Or will she invariably be identified
as Ashley Harkleroad, Playboy nude?

"It's funny," she said. "Really, I'm not vain. But my dad used to tell me,
'Ashley, if you weren't so pretty you'd be so much better a player.' Yes, there
are a lot of distractions out there. Look at Ana (Ivanovic). She gets all this
off-court attention and then you start worrying about how you look. Maybe people
won't take me seriously as a tennis player if I come back, but I've proven I can
play."

Chuck has her in the gym three times a week these days and they're doing some
light hitting twice a week. "We're also cycling in the hills, but you can't rush
this," he said. "Childbirth leaves your ligaments loose and jello-y. She tried
to play Team Tennis this year and couldn't. But by March she'll be much
stronger."

Adams knows this comeback won't be easy. "But you saw Kim Clijsters. She has
balance in her life and if Ash gives it a chance, I think she can be better than
she was before she got pregnant.

"At this stage, I don't think she's convinced about a comeback, but she gets
eight free tournaments and we can't pass that up. So she's not excited yet to
come back because she's so into being a mother, but when March comes around, I
think she'll enjoy it."

The eight free ones are the tournaments she can enter with a protected ranking
of 68, if she comes back within a year of taking the time off.

She's 24, but "i feel about 34," she said, half-jokingly. Which is not a bad
thing because it puts her, in her mind anyway, a lot closer to Adams' age of 38.
Still, it was the right marriage for her, she said. "Chuck is such an incredible
money manager and great husband."

Her split with Bogomolov wasn't pretty, but she doesn't regret the ridiculously
early marriage. "I learned a lot, though I feel I could have done things
differently. He was my buddy and I'm happy that he's remarried and is expecting
a baby. I'm just happy that Bogie is happy."

Obviously, things haven't gotten less complicated for Harkleroad. Playboy . . .
removal of an ovary . . . and now they are on the cusp of a reality show deal
that could make life even more cluttered.

"A big part of me just wants to be a mother," she concluded. "But there's a part
of me, too, that wouldn't mind seeing how it goes if I come back to tennis. So,
I'm kind of in the middle."

That got a chuckle out of me. She's always, it seemed, been in the middle of
something.

Charles Bricker can be reached at bricker@...