"Many moments of doubt" - Wawrinka on struggle to return from injury

Stan Wawrinka has admitted he had doubts about returning from injury after spending over a year on the sidelines.

The three-time Grand Slam champion suffered a foot injury in early 2021 and required two operations on his way to recovery. After 13 months out, he finally made his return at a Challenger Tour event last month in Marbella. And the 37-year-old has said there were times he questioned whether he could return to the sport:

"I thought I would be (out) only a few weeks. It lasted a whole year with many moments of doubts. Of course, there were those questions in my mind. I was afraid things wouldn't happen the way I wanted them to happen, and when you have those difficult times and those doubts, you know you need to go through rehab to be able to live a normal daily life anyway. So in my mind, one way or the other, I knew I would want to come back."

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He also said:

"My level is pretty good in practice, but I need to find my game during matches ... try to do the right things and practise a lot and stay positive, even if sometimes I feel very frustrated because I can see what I need to do and I can't do it."

Wawrinka was pretty close to his first win since the injury as he was up a set against Bublik who admitted after the match that Wawrinka deserved to win the match. His fitness level was not good enough to last a whole 3 sets which is why he ultimately lost.