PRAGUE – Czech tennis player Jiří Veselý returns to the courts with new zest and strength. The former Czech team, who did not play for more than seven months due to a thigh muscle injury, will appear again next week at the tournament in Ostrava.
Despite the fact that he does not set specific goals for the season, he told journalists at the press conference that he would like to succeed on the grass surface and participate in all the Grand Slams. At 29, he believes he can still succeed among the world’s elite.
“If it wasn’t for the hunger to continue, I wouldn’t be sitting here. In the last year there were a lot of health and mental problems and it was a vicious circle. That’s probably why I got injured.” said Veselý.
“The break was beneficial and necessary. I’m still 29 years old, so it’s pointless to think that it should be over. I think I have a lot of good years ahead of me and I’d like to make the most of it. So that, for example, in six years, when the end comes he said I gave it my all” he added.
The native of Příbram last played a competitive match on August 30 last year at the US Open against Briton Daniel Evans. He then devoted himself to the treatment of an injured muscle in his leg. He returned to training this year in January.
“After fitness training in the Canaries since the end of February, I am already playing fully. I think the level is good, even if there are slight fluctuations after such a time. The more training sets or sharp matches I have, the more it will go up. It is important to be fit, the rest will come,” said Veselý.
A new implementation team is available. The head coach is Emanuel Řehola, who previously also helped Barbora Krejčíková. In addition to another external coach, whom he did not want to name, and physiotherapist Ruie Faria, his conditioning coach is David Vydra, who in the past trained Tomáš Berdych or Petra Kvitová.
“Training has improved and we deal with it as the body feels every day. In the past, people tried to do everything right, but many times they went through pain and it didn’t pay off. We are doing it differently now, and in five months I will be ready in terms of health and physicality .”
Falling in the rankings does not solve
The fall to the current 495th place does not bother him and he joked that he stopped looking at the ranking since September. “It probably doesn’t make sense to solve the rankings now. I have to focus on my tennis and get through the challengers. It won’t be easy, there are many quality players. I think I have the training and the quality as well. You have to believe in it and give it time. In about half in a year I’ll probably be somewhere, but of course it’s a long way to 100” said Veselý.
Thanks to the protected ranking, he will use the start in some tournaments and believes that they will also receive wild cards. “I want to play all the Grand Slams, and if I don’t get cards, I’ll try to use the protections for grass tournaments, where I think I have the best chance,” said Veselý, who has seven kilograms less than in the past.
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Source: SITA/AP/Ebrahim Noroozi
In the period without tennis, memories of the successes he achieved also helped him. One of them was last year’s final in Dubai, where he also defeated the Serbian star Novak Djokovic.
“It was a fall from the top to somewhere in hell. But that’s actually how it is with me. Success will come and then a dark period. I admit that for the first months of the break I didn’t even want to hear about tennis, let alone see it. I was done with everything , I wanted to rest. It wasn’t until the beginning of December that I started thinking about what to do next,” said the former 35th player in the world.
Part of the restart is moving from Prostějov to Prague. He strengthened Sparta. “The beginning of training was extremely painful, because I was completely out of it. But there were still thoughts that I played the biggest tournaments and beat several players from the top ten. I need to be more confident in myself, believe in my game and not rush after every defeat , which worked very well for me in the past,” Veselý smiled ironically.
He longs to return to the national team
In Ostrava, he arranged a training session with the Frenchman and former sixth player in the world Gaël Monfils, who is ranked 322nd. In the future, he would like to return to the Davis Cup team, which made it to the September final tournament in Valencia this year.
“When Mr. Navrátil and I said goodbye in Prostějov, I told him that if I was fit and in shape, I would definitely like to accept the invitation. But this year’s final is the merit of the guys who won it, so it wouldn’t be fair to rush somewhere. I’ll leave this to others. If there is interest in me, I am ready to represent again,” Veselý added.
- Author: © List
- Source: CTK
