Thomas Muster to make ATP return in Vienna
If 40-year-old Kimiko Date Krumm can still upset the odd top-10 player on the WTA Tour, then what’s to stop 43-year-old Thomas Muster doing so on the men’s side of things?
The answer, it seems, may well be decided at the Bank Austria TennisTrophy in Vienna next week where Muster has been granted a wildcard to play in what will be his first ATP Tour level tournament since 1999.
The evergreen Date Krumm, who defeated defending champion and world No. 8 Samantha Stosur on her way to the final in Osaka last week (where she lost to 33-year-old Tamarine Tanasugarn) may well be the kind of comeback story Muster needs as he returns to the ATP tour, but his chances of immediately emulating those kind of results are wafer thin.
After all, Date Krumm is in her third year back after a lengthy retirement; Muster is barely a few months into his.
The former world No. 1 – that ranking was reached all the way back in 1996 – launched his comeback in mid-2010, and since June has been playing on the Challenger circuit, without, it has to be said, any great success.
Indeed, his only victory in six tournaments came against world No. 570 Borut Puc in the first round in Ljubljana, Slovenia, during September. That victory earned Muster a re-entry into the ATP Rankings for the first time in more than a decade.
The Austrian will make his return to ATP level competition as the world No. 982, at a tournament where 29-year-old compatriot and current world No. 12 Jürgen Melzer has a title to defend.
Muster’s past record, where the 1995 French Open title is the highlight of the 44 career singles titles he won between 1986 and 1997, is much more impressive than his recent results, and far outshines Melzer’s two career titles, but it’s those recent results that indicate that though local fans may be treated to a blast from the past for one match, that will surely be all they’ll get from Muster in Vienna this year.
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