I spotted the always-dashing Tatiana Golovin zipping around at an adidas promotion yesterday and caught up with the former top 15 player who has been MIA from the WTA circuit for more than a year. Golovin didn’t use the word retirement, but it sounded as if her career could be over before her 22^nd birthday.

“I try not to think about it,” said the Russian-born Frenchwoman, who reached a ranking high of No. 12 in February 2008 before chronic back inflammation sidelined her career.

Golovin, who last played a singles match more than a year ago at Berlin (she lost in the first round to Caroline Wozniacki), is not hitting at all and trying a combination of rehab, treatment and rest to heal her back. It’s not an injury that surgery can cure and little has worked.

“It’s hard to handle, but we’re doing everything we can,” she said. “It’s such an important part of the body that you can’t come back unless you’re fully fit.”

The camera-loving player said she grew tired of setting deadlines for a return – deadlines she continually failed to meet. “Now, I’d just rather take my time and when the time is right I’ll come back,” she said. “It’s just that it’s been so long and the doctors aren’t telling me that there’s a certain time that it’s going to get better, so I have to keep my options open. If you’re body is giving up on you, you have to do your best and try to stay positive.”

Fittingly, Golovin is focusing her energies elsewhere. She’s dabbling in TV, taking classes and ramping up her charity work. She did some spots for Tennis Channel last week and is working for France 2 for Roland Garros, the official tournament broadcaster. She’s taking classes in international relations in London to be close to her boyfriend, the Arsenal soccer player Samir Nasri. And she wants to do more outreach work, which she has already started as an ambassador for the UNESCO-WTA joint program to promote gender equality.

Golovin, who reached the 2006 U.S. Open quarterfinals, owns two WTA titles, and has earned almost $2 million in prize money, still believes she can return. At 21, that's not unrealistic.  “No, I haven’t given up,” she said. 

Djoker Speaks About Head Commercial

I was among a small group of reporters with Novak Djokovic on Saturday when he was asked about his starring role in a recent and rather risqué commercial for Head. Djokovic admitted that much of it was unscripted and improvised, but not all of it played well at home.

“My mother reacted quite strange on that,” the No. 4 Serb said of the ad, which includes Djokovic ogling a female in the crowd, balancing a racket on his nose and a water-in-the-chair move a la Jennifer Beals in “Flashdance” – all while chasing down a ball in the stands. Oh yeah, and an elderly lady lubes his chest with baby oil. “It’s a very strange commercial,” he conceded with a chuckle.

But that’s not what irked his mother. “When she saw it, she laughed,” said Djokovic. “She liked the idea, the fun we had, the enjoyment we had making it. But she didn’t like the nipple thing.” To see what he’s talking about, click here.

Djokovic said he sat for an hour contemplating whether or not to perform the portion of the ad that apparently upset his mother. “I just imagined my mother giving me comments about it,” he said. At least he knows where Mom draws the line. Asked if he’d do another commercial like that, Djokovic said: “With the nipples, I don’t think (so).”