Brian Baker acknowledges he surpassed his expectations for 2012 – Tennis News
American comeback hero, Brian Baker, has accepted that he did not have many expectations when he resumed his tennis career last year. He also said that he succeeded in achieving more success in 2012 ATP season than he had thought.
Baker returned to competitive tennis in 2011 after an almost six years of injury lay off. The American player took part in five tournaments in the last season. He defeated his compatriot, Bjorn Fratangelo, in the final of first
Future event he played.
Giving an interview to ATP World Tour’s official website, Baker said, “Right when I began the comeback, my expectations were pretty low, so if we start there, I surpassed it. Once I got started throughout the year and was playing
several matches and tournaments, I think I realised my body could take it.”
Starting this year with a ranking of close to 500, the right-hander made huge strides. After winning three Future and Challenger level events in the first four months of the season, Baker qualified for the main draw of his first
World Tour-level event, Open de Nice Côte d’Azur. The American contestant stunned four top 100 ranked players, including Gael Monfils and Nikolay Davydenko, to advance to the title match, eventually losing to Nicolas Almagro.
Baker managed to win the USTA playoff competition to earn a wild card entry for the French Open. The American player succeeded in clearing the first round but went down in the second one.
He headed to the All England Lawn Tennis Club to take part in the qualifying event of Wimbledon Championships. The American national not just managed to enter the main draw but gave highly impressive performance to reach the fourth
round.
However, he could not fare well after that, as he lost 10 of the 13 matches he played on the ATp World TOur until the end of the season. The reason Baker gave for the downslide was that he had got fatigued up after playing so many
tournaments in one season.
The American player added, “At the end of the year, I was a little worn down both physically and mentally, but I was able to escape any major problems and like you said, played 25 tournaments. I definitely matched my expectations,
but I don’t know if I surpassed them once I got playing again and was feeling pretty good.”
Baker will take part in two warm up events before the Australian Open, having a chance of making more big strides in the rankings.
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