Juan Martin del Potro makes his return this week at Sydney, but is seeing it as the first step in a long road back.
The Argentine admits that playing the tournament will be a "big challenge," but no longer wants the frustration of being on the sidelines, when he would "watch all the tournaments on TV and see how open it was in the Grand Slams."
The former U.S. Open champion was scheduled to play his first event since wrist surgery at Brisbane but withdrew, deciding he was not prepared. But he is now returning to competition despite saying that his wrist is still hurting, and he cannot hit his two-handed backhand properly.
"It bothers me sometimes when I hit backhands, but I am trying to hit harder because I need to hit harder if I want to play this tournament. Sometimes the pain is high, sometimes it is low," he said. “It's much better than [it was] three or four weeks ago, and the doctor says that I can't make it worse by playing at a high level, so I am very positive for that. I need to do a lot of treatment every day. I do a long warmup before practice and matches, which takes a lot of time."
Del Potro plays Sergiy Stakhovsky in the first round and could meet the top seed, Fabio Fognini, in the second round. However, he is prepared to be patient, saying, "It will be a long road to get in good shape and to get to my level."