Graceful exits not so uncommon

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Steffi Graf seems to have settled into her post-tennis life without second thoughts. AP Jon Wertheim's Mailbag Jon Wertheim will answer questions from SI.com users in his mailbag every Wednesday. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND Follow Jon Wertheim on Twitter

While wondering whether Serena Williams' new, shiny No. 1 ranking will have any subconscious bearing on the pending ITF decision ...

Who are some of the top athletes who just walked away (into retirement) and never looked back? No comebacks, no TV jobs, no coaching jobs, nothing whatsoever in relation to their sport. I can only think of John Stockton of the NBA's Utah Jazz.
-- Mario, Saudi Arabia

• There was this German player, name isn't coming to me right now, but she retired in 1999 and never looked back. No coaching, no broadcasting no "tournament director" job that would have paid her tons and only entailed shaking a few sponsors' hands. She did marry a tennis player -- and will get dragged to his Hall of Fame induction and so forth. But otherwise, she's had virtually no presence after hanging up her rackets.

Seriously, apart from Steffi Graf, plenty of athletes retire and stay out of the public consciousness. Barry Sanders, who retired in his prime and never came back to the NFL, comes immediately to mind. Some, like Jack Lambert of the Steel Curtain Pittsburgh Steelers teams, take it to extremes.

Obviously, in recent years we've seen the "unretirement" come into vogue, whether it's been Michael Jordan, Brett Favre or Justine Henin. To me, it makes a lot of sense. The financial incentives for athletes have never been higher: One additional season could mean eight figures of income. Hard to face that reality and say, "Nah, it might tarnish my legacy." But I really feel a lot of these decisions are rooted in something deeper than money. The curse of being an athlete is realizing that your life might have peaked at age 28, that you may (likely) never be an elite practitioner at something ever again. In the face of that, it's totally understandable you'd want to resist expulsion from the kingdom as long as possible.

Given Justin Gimelstob's and your opinion about "retirements," should I hang on to my hope to see Marat Safin unretire at the age of 31?
-- Asel, New York

• My sense is that this is one guy who will NOT make a comeback. But it was a year ago the Belgian media was saying the same thing about Kim Clijsters and Henin.

I'm curious: How good a basketball player was Clijsters' husband, Brian Lynch?
-- Tal, Paris

• I'm not sure about his play in the Belgian league. But Lynch played collegiately at Villanova, a top American program that even reached the Final Four in 2009. Weirdly enough, the Villanova basketball gym was formerly the site of the WTA's Philadelphia event. I wonder if Lynch and Clijsters didn't cross paths by happenstance in the late '90s.

Ana Ivanovic versus Kimiko Date Krumm. Who wins?
-- Jay Lassiter, Cherry Hill N.J.

• Imagine if Jay had asked that question a year ago -- a woman in her late 30s who hadn't played since the mid-'90s, or a recent Grand Slam champ? Today? I still give the edge to Ivanovic. But not by much. (More on her below.) And, like many, my capacity to be shocked by a WTA result these days is virtually nonexistent. It's not necessarily a bad thing: These erratic, inexplicable Skinner-box results are one of the great joys of being a sports fan. But, man, is the WTA in a weird place right now.

What's the over/under on how long it takes Henin to get back to No. 1? The Monday after the French? I can't see a scenario where either the Williams sisters play enough or Dinara Safina toughens up enough to keep Henin from just waltzing right back to the center of the dance floor as soon as she plays enough tourneys.
-- Craig Berry, Park Forest, Ill.

• Again, it's remarkable that a player "unretires" and the question is not, "Can she regain her mojo?" but rather, "How long before she becomes No. 1?" Let's at least see Henin play a few matches before we assume she'll get back to the top. Craig's question is interesting, though. My sense is that her rivalry with Clijsters has the potential to be really intriguing -- in a way it wasn't when they were in their early 20s and Henin's superior competitive resolve was enough to win her most matches.

I have revisited the John McEnroe-getting-paid-for-his-tantrums issue several times with you now and this will be my final attempt. I can only conclude that for reasons that I cannot comprehend, there is a deliberate attempt to hide what is probably a harmless disclosure. Here is the link again to the Fox Sports video with McEnroe on audio only.
-- RealTennisNut, Ann Arbor, Mich.

• Pseudonyms are discouraged, let's say that up front. But if I'm interpreting correctly, RealTennisNut makes an interesting point. Tennis Nation professes outrage for Serena's eruption, yet it appears from this video clip that McEnroe is contractually obligated to go ballistic at seniors events.

In last week's Mailbag you wrote, "I'm a decent [pool] shotmaker but never figured out positioning, which, as any decent player knows, is the real trick to the sport." Pool? A sport? I sure hope that was a typo.
-- Matt Woods, Sydney, Australia

• Maybe I'll plea bargain that down to "table sport."