Bit of an off-season thread, but hey, we’re almost there. Inspired by the forever young lady in my avatar, what are the most impressive first tournament performances from players returning from at least a 6 month absence on the tour? Pironkova shocked us all by coming back after a 3+ year break after having her first kid and made the USO QF - one of her career best highlights - beating Samsonova, Muguruza, Vekic and Cornet and taking a set off Serena in the QF. The rest of the comeback sort of fizzled from there - lasted less than a full season, but bearing in mind it was the peak Covid era - but that one result made it all worth it.
What are the others? I’ll start with a few:
- Seles winning Toronto T1 in 1995 after a 2+ year absence post her stabbing (and would subsequently make the USO F in her next event, a sadly, it was one of the last GS Finals that she ever competed in).
- Serena winning Miami 2004 after the 9 month absence after having knee surgery after Wimbledon 2003 (surprisingly, this ended up being probably the highlight of that year for Serena, with a lot of the following two years from being considered some of the worst form of her career).
- Let’s also not forget Sesil Karatantcheva’s thunderous return after a 2 year drugs ban in early 2007, where she went on a winning streak at 25k level, with people on TF actually starting to believe that a thunderous return could actually be happening, only for that run to be what felt like one of the highlights of her entire career, and spending years outside of the top 100. (Also, I like Sesil, so this isn’t me hating).
Also, we can also consider the result in context of a player’s overall achievements - i.e a player has a career best result in a comeback tournament; example that wouldn’t really be notable would be Sharapova 2017 return in Stuttgart after doping ban - the result was pretty good with a SF showing after almost 18 months out, but doesn’t make a blip on career achievements.
What others do we want to put in the comeback tournament hall of fame? And remember, it has to be very first tournament back (so the queen of overall comebacks, Clijsters, will not factor in here) and someone needs to have been missing for 6 months and over.
What are the others? I’ll start with a few:
- Seles winning Toronto T1 in 1995 after a 2+ year absence post her stabbing (and would subsequently make the USO F in her next event, a sadly, it was one of the last GS Finals that she ever competed in).
- Serena winning Miami 2004 after the 9 month absence after having knee surgery after Wimbledon 2003 (surprisingly, this ended up being probably the highlight of that year for Serena, with a lot of the following two years from being considered some of the worst form of her career).
- Let’s also not forget Sesil Karatantcheva’s thunderous return after a 2 year drugs ban in early 2007, where she went on a winning streak at 25k level, with people on TF actually starting to believe that a thunderous return could actually be happening, only for that run to be what felt like one of the highlights of her entire career, and spending years outside of the top 100. (Also, I like Sesil, so this isn’t me hating).
Also, we can also consider the result in context of a player’s overall achievements - i.e a player has a career best result in a comeback tournament; example that wouldn’t really be notable would be Sharapova 2017 return in Stuttgart after doping ban - the result was pretty good with a SF showing after almost 18 months out, but doesn’t make a blip on career achievements.
What others do we want to put in the comeback tournament hall of fame? And remember, it has to be very first tournament back (so the queen of overall comebacks, Clijsters, will not factor in here) and someone needs to have been missing for 6 months and over.
