Video: Del Potro Discusses Comeback

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Video: Del Potro Discusses Comeback

Juan Martin del Potro launches his comeback from wrist surgery in Sydney this week and says staying healthy will be his biggest challenge.

"The wrist is okay. For sure it will be a big challenge to see how I'm doing during the match," del Potro told the media in Sydney. "It's gonna be a big challenge to play this tournament and the next one and see if I can start the season healthy and play for the whole year."

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The 26-year-old Del Potro, who underwent left wrist injury on March 24th, has not played a Tour-level match since February 25th, when he was forced to retire against Somdev Devvarman in Dubai after dropping the first set.

Injury-induced inactivity made watching the 2014 season from home a "horrible" experience, but del Potro says he's in a positive state of mind now. He will play Sergiy Stakhovsky at Ken Rosewall Arena court on Tuesday. The winner will face top-seeded Fabio Fognini.

"It was horrible for me to watch all of the tournaments on TV and see how open it was the last year in the Grand Slams and the different names winning the big tournaments, which is good for tennis but sad for me because I was ready and prepared for that last year," del Potro said. "But I think all of those things are in the past fo me. I'm positive now and enjoying the present and very positive for the future. I know I need to be calm, to be patient, to stay healthy and play as good as I can. It's gonna be a long road to get in good shape and good level."

A year ago, del Potro defeated Bernard Tomic in the Sydney final for his 18th career title, but the 2009 U.S. Open champion reports practice wins have been hard to come by this week.

"I don't know if any players came back from two wrist injuries; it's very difficult when you start basically because you see all the players playing harder than me and playing really well," del Potro said. "I've been practicing with some players and they beat me very easy during the practice, but that's what I need to practice with them and spend more time on court. I'm hitting harder every day...I just wanted to start to play tennis. I didn't want to miss this tournament or the Australian Open."

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