Next week could have been the start of the biggest fortnight of Tanysha Dissanayake’s life. But instead of playing at Wimbledon, the former bright star of British tennis will simply hope to venture out of her Surrey home for a couple of brief hours having seen her life wrecked by long Covid.
All of the signs suggested that her game was heading in the right direction and that her dream of playing in a Grand Slam tournament would blossom into a reality.
Aged 18, Dissanayake was on the precipice of breaking into the world’s top 1,000 after a strong showing as a qualifier at a third-tier tournament in Sunderland. She shared a locker room with Grand Slam winner Emma Raducanu during that competition.
Dissanayake had experience on the SW19 grass too, having played a junior doubles match on Court 5 in 2018 against Leylah Fernandez, the young Canadian who Raducanu beat to lift her US Open crown in 2021 and had previously entered qualifying for the main draw at Wimbledon.
But then the Covid-19 pandemic hit and, like for so many, her life changed drastically. Now those times travelling the world playing the sport she loves feel a world ago.
Tanysha Dissanayake looked set for a bright future in tennis before suffering with long Covid
Dissanayake retired from tennis in 2022 and says she won’t be healthy enough to play again
‘I can’t say the last few weeks have been the greatest,’ she tells Mail Sport from inside an A&E waiting room while waiting to receive some test results. ‘I was being sick in the morning, feeling really dizzy and sweating… just sapped of energy even more than usual.’
Like an estimated 1.9million other Brits, this once healthy young women who dedicated her life to her training and physical condition has been left feeling the effects of long Covid.
Most who suffer from the condition experience symptoms like extreme fatigue for several weeks or months. In severe cases such as Dissanayake’s, sufferers can still be left debilitated by the condition years on.
The downturn began in July 2021, when she first tested positive for Covid-19. ‘Initially my friend had it so I knew there was a pretty high chance I would too,’ she says. ‘I had it worse so I knew I was in for a bit of a longer recovery. But I didn’t end up in hospital and I definitely thought I’d recover in two or three weeks.
‘I was 19 years old and at that point I’d only heard of older or vulnerable people getting sick so I never really thought that I would be. I had no underlying health conditions or reason to think I’d still be unwell years later.’
Aged 18 Dissanayake shared a locker room with Emma Raducanu at a tournament in Sunderland
Dissanayake says she won’t be watching Wimbledon as she’s ‘a bit jealous’ others can play
For a period last year she was bed-bound and the only time she would get out of bed would be to shower or brush her teeth. Even then she would have to sit down.
‘I felt so fatigued I did not have the energy to open my eyes,’ she says of her lowest ebb. ‘It’s not the tiredness you feel after a night of not sleeping well or a day of training because I know that feeling. You just can’t do anything, all you can do is lay in bed with your eyes shut and hope your body calms down. It feels like its’s stressed out for no reason.’
In the past year she has made some progress. Recently she has been able to leave the house twice a week to see friends for around two hours at a time. Such excursions take their toll, something Dissanayake says not everyone appreciates.
‘If I post on my social media that I’m at a coffee shop, people don’t seem to understand that it’s my one outing since the last time they saw me out,’ she says. ‘People think “oh, you’re fine now” – but they don’t see the hours or days it has taken me to prepare for that and the weeks it takes me to recover.
Last April she was finally diagnosed with long Covid after going privately to a specialist. They, however, did not need to tell her what she already knew. In October 2022, at the age of 21, she announced her retirement from tennis.
‘I think deep down I knew it was coming,’ she admits. ‘It was just having to have that conversation with myself… it took a long time to accept it. There is just no way I’ll be healthy enough to play again. Long Covid has taken tennis away from me and I have to accept it, there’s no other choice. I would just take having my life back.’
Dissanayake had planned to study medicine where she dreamed of pioneering research into her condition, of which little is known about. But now there are doubts whether she will ever be healthy enough to do so. ‘I might have to change career paths already… well, I’ve already done it once,’ she says.
And as for Wimbledon? She finds it too soon to watch at this stage.
‘I’m really happy for everyone, don’t get me wrong,’ she says. ‘But it also makes me a bit jealous because that’s where I could be if it wasn’t for everything I have been through. I miss the sport so much but I’m mostly jealous that they are able to go out, do what they want and go for their dreams while I’m still here… essentially fighting to live.’
