Jason Day’s vertigo at the US Open brought back bad memories for Alicia Molik

JASON Day’s vertigo gave him a horrible time at the US Open, but his experience was equally as distressing for a former tennis star.

Australian Fed Cup Captain Alicia Molik conducting free Tennis Clinic at the Powlett Reserve Tennis Centre, East Melbourne

JASON Day’s dramatic battle with vertigo at last month’s US Open evoked disturbing memories for Alicia Molik and the former tennis star only hopes the golf ace doesn’t endure the same torment she did.

Day’s troubles have been linked to a viral infection in his right ear but, with medication, the world No. 8 is vowing to soldier on in pursuit of British Open glory next weekend at St Andrews. Ten years ago, Molik wasn’t so fortunate.

At the peak of her powers, two months after reaching the Australian Open quarter-finals and also climbing to world No. 8, Molik was struck down with her own devastating middle ear disorder, later diagnosed as vestibular neuronitis — a condition which, ominously for Day, can result in vertigo.

Severely affecting her vision, perception and balance, the onset was sudden — and beyond debilitating.

It not only cruelled her career — at just 24 — but also plunged Molik into depression and turned her world upside down.

“I actually read one of the first articles that came out about Jason and it immediately brought back a lot of bad memories,” Molik, now Australia’s Fed Cup captain, told AAP at Wimbledon. “I immediately sympathised with what he experienced without knowing what he was diagnosed with.”

Molik was struck down in the prime of her career.

Day heroically battled through vertigo to finish the US Open.

Molik’s attack occurred during the most intense period of her career, after she’d won five WTA titles and an Olympic bronze medal in five months to emerge as genuine grand slam force.

“It was at a time I was performing the best, training the hardest and just had a lot of stresses, pressures, lack of sleep, anxiety; the whole kit and kaboodle that you experience as a professional tennis player,” Molik said. “It was really scary, really scary.”

Molik doesn’t know if Day, whose vertigo forced him to collapse on the final hole during the second round at Chambers Bay, experienced any of the same senses. But like the golf star, Molik said moving her head quickly made her feel nauseous and she’d need to quickly lie down. Not only was tennis out of the equation, but day-to-day activities proved extremely difficult too.

“That was incredibly difficult for six months. Very simple things,” Molik said.

“It was probably the time in my life I was most down; when your livelihood and what you love doing every day is taken away from you.

“So I’ve thought about Jason Day a lot. I don’t know him, but I love sport — I always follow every single Australian athlete.

“So I read the story about him and thought, ‘Ahhh, I feel like I know what he’s going through.’” Molik says she doesn’t have the medical background to advise Day, but hopes the 26-year-old three-times major runner-up heeds any warning signs and doesn’t work too hard like she did.

Originally published as Jason Day’s vertigo at the US Open brought back bad memories for Alicia Molik