Keegan Smith of the USA in action during the Karnataka Open ATP Challenger against Ognjen MILIC of Serbia at the S.M. Krishna Tennis Stadium, in Bengaluru on May 14, 2026.
| Photo Credit: K. MURALI KUMAR
The rigours of professional tennis must feel like a cakewalk for Keegan Smith, given that he has overcome far greater challenges in life.
As a college senior some years ago, Smith suffered a horrific skateboarding accident. A temporal bone fracture, haematoma and other major injuries left Smith fearing the worst.
“There was a moment in the hospital where I seriously felt like I was going to die,” Smith said here on Thursday.
Keegan Smith of the USA in action during the Karnataka Open ATP Challenger against Ognjen MILIC of Serbia at the S.M. Krishna Tennis Stadium, in Bengaluru on May 14, 2026.
| Photo Credit:
K. MURALI KUMAR
From lying in the hospital bed with little hope, the American made a miraculous recovery. “The haematoma in my head was blocking blood flow. It got really scary, because they gave me a blood thinner, and then the other side of my head started bleeding. But then one day I woke up and the doctors said that blood started going back into my arteries,” Smith, the top seed in the Karnataka Open ATP Challenger, said.
“They told me they had never seen a recovery like that. Most people with brain injuries can’t talk, can’t walk. This higher power — whatever you want to call it — is protecting us,” Smith added.
Smith’s new lease on life began in dramatically positive fashion. Just a couple of months after recovering from the accident, he won an ITF M15 tournament. “That was really crazy. It’s a really cool story. I couldn’t think of life without tennis, so I just got right back into it,” Smith said.
Keegan Smith of the USA in action during the Karnataka Open ATP Challenger against Ognjen MILIC of Serbia at the S.M. Krishna Tennis Stadium, in Bengaluru on May 14, 2026.
| Photo Credit:
K. MURALI KUMAR
The 27-year-old has since made rapid strides, having climbed to a career-best world ranking of 289. “I’m really, really proud of myself. I’ve been in a deep hole, and yet now I’m playing the best tennis of my life,” Smith said.
A deeply spiritual man and yoga practitioner, Smith was thrilled to partake in meditation sessions at the Ramakrishna Math here.
Smith swears by the art of yoga. “It’s great because you link the breath to the body. This allows my body to relax and reset. A lot of times, we live in our mind and in our head, reacting and stressing over things and thoughts that aren’t even happening,” he said.
“With yoga, I find myself being much softer to people, and much kinder and loving to myself. It helps release a lot of the stress that I go through in tennis. No materialistic success, or even success in tennis, will ever bring me the peace that meditation and yoga brings,” Smith said.
Published – May 14, 2026 08:24 pm IST
