The result didn’t go his way, but Dominic Thiem “felt like a player again” as he played his first competitive match in nine months.
Thiem suffered a serious wrist injury at the Mallorca Open in June last year and was forced to miss Wimbledon and the defence of his US Open title at Flushing Meadows as he underwent surgery.
After initially eyeing a comeback at the Australian Open, he was forced to delay his comeback and also opted to skip this month’s Indian Wells Open and Miami Open.
Instead he made his comeback at the Challenger Tour’s Andalucia Open, however the top seed went down 6-3, 6-4 against world No 228 Pedro Cachin from Argentina.
There were plenty of positives for the former world No 3.
“Today’s been one of those days with big emotions and mixed feelings,” he wrote. “You can imagine how happy I was today to be on a tennis court, doing what I love the most: playing tennis and competing again. After all these months, all those setbacks I had in the past few months, I was able to play again to feel the adrenaline of the competition. I felt like a player again.
“Obviously, the result today is the bitter part. I would have wanted to win, and I have to accept the defeat in a humble manner. This is only the beginning of a long way to the top of my game. This is something I knew could happen and the only thing I can say is that I am going to give it all to try to come back to my best level.”
Thiem will return to the ATP Tour next week as he will play at the ATP 250 Grand Prix Hassan II in Marrakech, Morocco.