BREAKING: US Open star was put in a coma and given 5% chance to live
Sebastian Gorzny ticked off a huge milestone in his tennis career, playing and winning his first Grand Slam main draw match. The American wildcard saved five match points to stun world No. 38 Raphael Collignon at the US Open in a match that spanned two days due to rain.
And Gorzny’s first Major win comes seven years after he was placed in a coma and given a 5% chance to live after having a seizure in the middle of the night while competing at a junior tournament in Kalamazoo.
The world No. 731 has now recounted the harrowing tale, revealing that he started off by feeling unwell on the court and ended up spending around five days in a coma. Gorzny, who received a wildcard by winning a collegiate playoff, told Tennis Channel: “So I just started feeling sick.
“I won my first round, and after, I was down, like, 5-0 in the second round, and I’m like, ‘Man, I can’t play’. And I ended up having a seizure at like 2am. My dad woke up, called an ambulance. We went to the hospital, they put me in a coma. I had a brain infection, meningitis encephalitis, through a mosquito bite or something.
“And they ended up telling my parents, you know, I have a five per cent chance of living. So they took the tubes out and said, you know, ‘He’s either going to breathe or not, there’s nothing we can really do’.”
Miraculously, Gorzny made a swift recovery, and the brain infection did not affect him in the long-term. He was soon back out on a court and, eight years later, has become a Grand Slam match-winner.
The 22-year-old continued: “And luckily, I started breathing, and I made a full recovery pretty quickly, actually, and it had no long-term impact. I did some physical therapy, and I was all good. It was a very traumatic experience, more so for my family, because to me, I just kind of fell asleep and woke up. I was in a coma, so I didn’t really feel much.
“But it definitely gave me a different perspective of being grateful for every day and every moment, and just kind of making the most of what you can. I was in a coma for, like, four, five days. They think so [it was from a mosquito bite]. Some type of… I had a brain infection.
I had to take, like, two months off to do physical therapy. I honestly felt fine but I guess the doctors prescribed balance and strengthening and stuff like that. Came back, obviously took me a while to get back into it, that kind of took away probably six months of my progress. But we’re here now, so it’s just part of the journey.”
After taking out a top-40 opponent in Flushing Meadows, Gorzny now has the opportunity to face 2021 champion and former world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev. “A few weeks ago, I was watching all these guys, and now I’m here. Just excited for it,” the world No. 731 smiled.
