Kanepi almost quit tennis before comeback that led to US Open 4th round

Kaia Kanepi is playing in her first Grand Slam main draw in two years, but with Saturday's tense three-set win over rising star Naomi Osaka at the US Open, she's on the cusp of making her sixth major quarterfinal, and her first since 2013.

Kanepi missed almost all of 2016 and the first half of 2017 due to plantar fasciitis in both feet. Before she embarked on the comeback that began at a Challenger in June and now has her in the fourth round at Flushing Meadows, the 32-year-old Estonian said she considered retiring.

"I actually did not know if I would come back again," she told WTA Insider's David Kane earlier this week. "For three months, I didn't even treat the injury, because I just didn't care."

Kanepi also admitted that when she did start treating the injury, it wasn't with an eye to returning to the tour. And when she started training again, it wasn't with a fellow tennis player.

"I started thinking, 'Okay, I'm tired of waking up every day with pain. I should get my feet in good condition,'" she said. "That's when I started making treatments, and by December I began actually training a bit with a discus thrower in Estonia, just for fun. I still didn't know if I wanted to come back.

"In January or February I thought, 'Well, I've been training already, so maybe I should try one more time to come back.'"

She won that first Challenger in Essen, Germany, then decided to play qualifying at Wimbledon and in Bucharest. She came up short both times, but finally punched through in New York to qualify for the US Open main draw.

"When I played my first match I won quite easily, in one hour, but the next day my body was really tight," she said. "It takes time to get used to it, but the body comes around eventually."

Now that she has a handful of matches under her belt, the former world No. 15 is back to playing and feeling like her old self, but with a few more hard-earned lessons in mind.

"I've learned that the most important thing is your health, and you shouldn't ignore any pain," Kanepi said. "I've done that in the past, and now I don't want to do it again. If I feel any pain I won't play, but I feel really good."

She'll play Daria Kasatkina on Monday for a spot in the quarters.