(Photo: ASU media relations)
Three years ago, Ilze Hattingh was playing a night tennis match on a back court at a small International Tennis Federation tournament in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, losing badly in the round of 16 singles match and wondering about her life.
She was 19 at the time, already six years since she left her home in Durban, South Africa, to train at JL's Tennis Academy in Pretoria.
Hattingh wasn't alone all that time, not after contracting hepatitis while playing at a tournament in Botswana when she was 14.
"I just thought I was nauseous and didn’t want to eat," Hattingh said.