Kevin has more time to recuperate
WHILE the break in international sport will be frustrating for most professional athletes, South African tennis player Kevin Anderson could benefit from the extra recovery time after undergoing knee surgery in February.
The 33-year-old was scheduled to return to action at the Monte Carlo Masters next month, but all tennis tournaments in the immediate future have been cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
“My recovery’s gone great. I think it’s been really successful so far ... I probably would have been ready for Monte Carlo and the clay-court season,” Anderson told ATPTour.com
“Obviously that’s not going to happen anymore, so we had to readjust and now I’ll be at home and I feel like the toughest part of getting over the surgery and recovery has been done.”
Anderson, a former world No 5 as recently as 2018, has dropped to 123rd on the ATP rankings due to his injury battles.
“I feel quite confident where I am right now and I can maintain as much as I can while not being able to train properly and hopefully things settle down and it’s more safe to go outside, I’ll be able to resume and get back with things.
“After my last tournament (at the New York Open) it seemed just going on like this wouldn’t make the most sense,” Anderson said.
“But for the whole time I was in Australia and New York, I was told there was a chance I didn’t need the surgery, so I was a little bit unlucky that in the end I needed it, and that’s why I decided to get it done.”
Anderson first reached the top 10 in the world in 2015 before he slipped back to 80th position as injury struck.
Returning stronger and better than before, however, seems to be a recurring theme for the 2017 US Open and 2018 Wimbledon finalist.
“Each setback or obstacle is unique and you need to approach it differently,” he said.
“But having that experience in the past will help.
“Obviously now it’s two things: First was getting over my surgery, which I feel I was doing a really good job with. (Then) we are faced with a sort of unprecedented time and obviously just like a lot of other players have expressed, the concern is more for globally getting this under control for many people.
“I think it’s bigger than our sport right now.”