Robby Ginepri defeated Tommy Haas 6-4, 7-5 on Tuesday at the Atlanta Tennis Championships in his first competitive match back after breaking his left elbow in September.
“This is definitely up there as a highlight,” he said. “You always wonder if the work you put in is enough. I worked pretty hard to get back with the elbow and to fight a lot of other battles along the way.”
Ginepri, a Marietta resident, received a wild-card entry into the tournament’s main draw. He didn’t look like someone who recently played a few matches on a minor-league circuit as he eases his way back into tennis.
Instead, he looked confident and displayed many of the skills that helped him win three tournaments before his injury: passing shots with the forehand and backhand, a deft touch on drop shots and a first serve that led to nine aces.
“I felt a little passive in the beginning,” he said. “I started off a little bit nervous. I wasn’t hitting the ball as well as I needed to. Toward the end I started getting a lot better. I stayed patient out there.
“The backhand’s feeling good, elbow’s feeling strong. I’m excited to get back out there.”
When the match was over, after Haas pushed a forehand wide left, the crowd on the Stadium Court at the Racquet Club of the South stood and gave Ginepri a standing ovation.
He will face Gilles Muller, who upset seventh-seeded Alex Bogomolov Jr., in the second round. Ginepri said he will need to return Muller’s left-handed serve well if he hopes to advance to the third round.
Ginepri hadn’t won a match on the ATP Tour since defeating Somdev Devvarman in Cincinnati in August of last year. He lost his first-round match in the U.S. Open and then injured his elbow in a mountain-biking accident less than a month later.
“I’ll definitely remember this, especially being in my hometown of Atlanta, getting my first ‘W’ back,” Ginepri said.
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