“I was in chronic pain in my right shoulder,” she said. “It had been bothering me for a long time. I could still run and hit forehands and backhands, but I became tired of trying to compete without a serve. Even in women’s tennis, it’s impossible. The girls are strong, they step in and close you down.”

At the time, she said, she was not thinking of stopping for good. Taking a position as a commentator for Russian television, Myskina had time to reflect on the comforts of her new existence. She thought of the prematch nerves, 6 a.m. runs and relentless drills, and did not miss them. Her first child arrived in 2008; two more followed within the next three years.

“Having children really changes your perspective,” she said. “You become entirely preoccupied with all these questions — what to do if they’re sick, if anything goes wrong. My career as an athlete felt like somewhere else, a very long time ago. And it hit me how much changes with time. While you take a few years out, the sport accelerates away from you. The training is harder than ever, and the girls are now much younger than you. I realized I couldn’t go back.”

But Myskina, now 34, missed competition and the team environment. She still thinks about a 2004 Olympic semifinal match that she lost to Justine Henin despite leading, 5-1, in the third set.

“I perhaps wish I could have played for a bit longer, but I don’t call this a regret,” Myskina said. “It happened, and there’s nothing I can do about that. But if there’s one thing which really makes me sad, it’s Athens. I should have won that match. If it happened in a Grand Slam, it would have been easier to forgive myself. Grand Slams come around every couple of months, but the Olympics is something else, it’s once in four years.”