After earning the USTA wild card into Roland Garros by winning the Savannah Challenger, former junior standout Brian Baker says that while it was mentally draining to try and come back from five surgeries, he never lost hope.
"You always have doubts. But I tried to stay positive and I never totally let go of trying to play again," he told TENNIS.com. "There were times when the body doesn’t feel good and you wake up and it’s the same thing every day [after surgery], and you kind of ask yourself, is this really going to happen, can I go through this anymore? But I got some help from physical therapists and my elbow (which took two and half years to heal) finally started to feel better. I don’t know what the key was, but over time I got better. There were a lot of ups and downs and rough patches as I wasn’t sure I’d be able to play pro again, but fortunately I was able to come back last summer. I’m happy to being playing tennis again and be able to revive my career."
In 2003, Baker came within one victory of becoming the first male since John McEnroe in 1977 to win the Roland Garros boys’ singles championships. At that tournament, he upset two men who would go on to reach the Australian Open finals—Marcos Baghdatis and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga—and lost to Stanislas Wawrinka, who would later become a Top 10 player. He also played against 2010 Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych in the juniors. Baker was off the tour for the better part of six years due to injuries. Now 27, Baker says he didn’t resent his peers, but he did pay attention to their progress.
"It was some motivation coming back," said Baker, who began his comeback last July. "I remember when Baghdatis reached the Australian final [in 2006], that was after my first surgery and I didn’t realize I would go through four more surgeries. It was tough when you are out that long. When you see your peers doing well you are little bummed about what could have been, but I tried not to play that game because it would make you go crazy. You have to roll with punches."
Now ranked No. 214, Baker may play the qualifying at the tournament in Nice the week before Roland Garros.—Matt Cronin