Taylor Dent (REUTERS/David Gray)

For Taylor Dent life couldn’t have been better until a little over two years ago, pain in his lower back changed his life and the way he used to live it. Dent, a native southern Californian, spent over two years off of the ATP tour. He went through three back surgeries knowing that playing tennis would never be an option again. “When I kind of bit the bullet and decided to go with the fusion surgery. I didn’t do it to play tennis,” Dent said in a press conference after his first round victory at the 2009 US Open, “The doctors told me that I would not be playing tennis if I did that surgery.”

But little did he know that after a successful surgery the doctor gave him potentially good news. This is when after all the pain and the discomfort of wearing a body cast for 8 months that spanned from his arm pits to the top of his knees, Taylor would face his moment of truth in tennis and his young life. And it continued even into his grueling 4 hour 12 minute, 6-4, 5-7, 6-7 (1), 7-5, 7-6 (9) second round triumph over Spanish opponent Ivan Navarro yesterday. Afterward, Dent stated the following when:

“First one [back surgery] didn’t go well. Second one ended up going well. The doctors said, It healed up very well. You should try to hit some balls. I got too excited. I definitely got too excited. My eyes lit up. I got out on the court later that day. That was probably the toughest moment for me, just to see how far I had lost, how much I’d lost. I sat down after two minutes of hitting, and I’m just like, phew. That’s kind of when I had the talk with myself, Do I even want to do this? I have lost everything. I’m getting winded after 30 seconds of hitting balls up and down the court. I’m hitting the ball terrible. I have no confidence. I haven’t even hit serves yet, which is the biggest part of my game. So that’s when I just said, Look, you can’t be selfish and you can’t be naive about this … You have to play professional sports again. Nobody gets this opportunity. A select few get this opportunity. You would be an idiot to push it back.”

This is where a champion was born. Dent will no longer let any opportunity on the court or in life pass him by. We all know, as Taylor Dent has learned, that at any moment what you love and what you want to do can be taken away from you in a split second. Being a “life” champion is about bringing your very best effort with your focus and energy to do the best you can.

When Taylor was asked about his next challenge, the #2 ranked player in the world and US Open favorite, Andy Murray, Taylor responded by saying:

“You know, I honestly don’t know how I’m going to fare against Murray. But I will guarantee everybody this: if I lose 6 0, 6 0, 6 0, I’m going to die fighting for every point. Like I said earlier, my execution isn’t at the level that I would like to go into a match playing Andy Murray, so I’m going to make up for that with just pure grit and toughness up there. You know, we’ll see if that’s enough to get me through.”

Spoken, like a true champion.

Enjoy the great tennis ahead!

Taylor Dent taking his victory lap after his 5 set second round victory in the 2009 US Open.