Yuki Bhambri: People don’t realize that tennis is very demanding physically

Former India No.1 Yuki Bhambri recently revealed his targets of achieving full fitness ahead of this year’s Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Going over a year without a racquet in his hands due to his injury was getting into his head, Bhambri revealed.

“It was tough mentally,” Yuki Bhambri told the Olympic Channel. “But, knowing that I wanted to come back keeps me going and pushing. To keep going when I didn’t feel like it was also difficult. There were days before I couldn’t really get the treatment. I used to get up on those days and stare at the wall helplessly as I didn’t know what to do,” said Bhambri.

He last played at the European Open in 2018 and his return has been hanging since. The former Australian Open junior champion said that he wants to get to full fitness before making a comeback on the tour. “People don’t realize that tennis is very demanding physically,” he explained. “It is more so now than it was 15-20 years ago.”

“Tennis has changed a lot and is different from what it was 15-20 years ago. You don’t have the fast courts that used to be. Even in Wimbledon, we can see the grass-court having more rallies that wasn’t the case before,” he added.

Bhambri is hoping to make his competitive comeback in another month or two. “I want to be able to do the French Open and Wimbledon, which are the immediate goals,” he said. “So, I am definitely looking to return to the court before the clay court season starts. I also want to really push through to the US hard court summer.”

He spoke about India’s 2020 Olympic ambitions as well, saying, “Hopefully, we will see many Indian singles guys keeping up with the level of competition. It’s heartening to see youngsters like Sumit Nagal and Sasi Kumar Mukund coming through as well.”

But he was way more reserved about his Olympic ambitions, saying, Olympics is the one tournament that I haven’t been able to play but have heard so much of. Hopefully, I will get there in 2024. But I sincerely hope a team reaches there in 2024. It’s tough with the rankings but I hope we get a doubles team. That’s one tournament I really want to tick off. For me, 2024 is a more realistic target.”

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2uBOqV0