Not every comeback ends in a trophy: the stories still being written as 2026 closes

The key is to compare players whose comebacks have reached very different stages: some have already shown they can compete with the best again, while others are still trying to rediscover the level that once made them major contenders.

A comeback does not have to end with a return to the top 10. For a former champion, it can mean winning matches against top opponents again, proving that the game is still there, or writing a better final page.

Andreescu's 2019 was one of the most remarkable seasons of the decade. She won Indian Wells as a wild card, took the Canadian Open when Serena Williams retired in the final, and won the US Open on her main-draw debut, beating Williams 6-3, 7-5. She reached No. 4 that October. The interruptions that followed have been relentless: a knee problem, an ankle injury that forced her to retire from the 2021 Miami final, back trouble in 2022, and emergency appendix surgery in 2025 that cost her the first months of that year.

Her 2026 has been a long, patient rebuild from No. 228. She won 13 of 14 ITF matches in January, including titles at Bradenton and Vero Beach, reached the Austin WTA 125 final and qualified for Wimbledon. The summer was harder: a loss to Nikola Bartunkova in Toronto, a loss to Tamara Zidansek in US Open qualifying and a first-round loss to Cristina Bucsa in Guadalajara.

This fall she has returned to the WTA 125 circuit, where she was entered in Samsun and is listed in the round of 16 in Rovereto this week. At No. 168 the useful question is not whether she will be a top-10 player again. It is whether the aggressive returning and pace redirection that made 2019 so special can show up for a full run of matches, at any level.

Kenin won the 2020 Australian Open, beating Garbiñe Muguruza 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, and reached the French Open final that year, losing to Iga Świątek 4-6, 1-6. She reached No. 4 in March 2020. Appendicitis in 2021 and a series of withdrawals in 2022 dropped her to No. 235 at the end of that year. She fought back into the top 100 in October 2024, reached the Charleston final in 2025, and was three match points from beating Madison Keys at the French Open.

This year has been uneven. She lost her Australian Open opener to Peyton Stearns, which left her 2-7 at the event since her title, and lost to Stearns again at the French Open, where her ranking fell out of the top 100. There have been strong moments, including a third-set tie-break loss to Amanda Anisimova at Wimbledon and a US Open win over Venus Williams before losing to Jessica Pegula.

But the most recent data point, a 6-0, 6-3 loss to Kamilla Rakhimova in Wuhan qualifying on October 10, shows how far the swings still are. She then played doubles with Irina Khromacheva, beating Pegula and Muhammad before a round-of-16 loss. Her story is not about one title run. It is about turning those good matches into a pattern.

Berrettini reached No. 6 in January 2022 and played the 2021 Wimbledon final, losing to Novak Djokovic 7-6(4), 4-6, 4-6, 3-6. He has won 10 ATP titles, the latest in Kitzbühel in 2024, and was part of Italy's Davis Cup-winning teams in 2024 and 2025. The injury list is long, including hand surgery in 2022, a foot injury in 2024 and withdrawals from major events in 2025.

The most important data point of his 2026 is Roland Garros, a surface that does not favour his game on paper. He reached the quarterfinals, and although he retired against Matteo Arnaldi, the run showed the serve and forehand can still work at major level. Earlier in the year he beat Daniil Medvedev 6-0, 6-0 in Monte-Carlo, and he has beaten Wawrinka at both Wimbledon and the US Open.

In Shanghai he beat Aleksandar Kovacevic 6-7(3), 6-1, 6-4 and lost to Brandon Nakashima 7-6, 7-5, wasting three break points in the first set. His ranking is around No. 46. The question is not whether he has the game. It is how many consecutive weeks his body gives it a chance.

Wawrinka won the Australian Open in 2014, the French Open in 2015 and the US Open in 2016, and reached No. 3. On December 19, 2025, he announced that 2026 would be his last season. He is 41, and his body has been less cooperative than his backhand. He needed a wild card for the French Open as a player ranked No. 125, back pain ended his Rome qualifying attempt in May, and his Grand Slam farewell in New York was a first-round loss to Berrettini, 7-6, 7-6, 6-0. Berrettini had also beaten him at Wimbledon, after four tie-breaks.

Two tournaments remain. The Lyon Open is scheduled for October 19-25, though I could not confirm his entry or the draw, and the Swiss Indoors in Basel runs from October 26 to November 1, with a tribute evening planned for Monday, October 26.

The story here is not about a ranking. It is a final challenge: to win one more match, in front of a home crowd, with the single-handed backhand that won three majors. A victory in either event would give his season, and his career, a better last line than a loss.

Berrettini is the clearest example of a player who has shown he can compete with the best again, and his obstacle is physical. Andreescu and Kenin are the youngest of the four and still have the most time, but they are the furthest from the level that made them major contenders.

Wawrinka's route is the shortest and the most emotional. None of them needs to return to the very top for the story to matter. They only need to give people a reason to keep watching, and in 2026 all four still have.