No one ever said coming back from knee surgery would be easy, but Stan Wawrinka knows he’s moving in the right direction.

After shutting down what had been a successful 2017 season due to a knee injury, which would ultimately require surgery and months of rehabilitation, Wawrinka made his return to competition at the Australian Open, winning one round before succumbing to Tennys Sandgren in the second. With his feet back on the ground – both literally and figuratively – the Swiss heads to the DIEMA XTRA Sofia Open in search of his next step.

“I am feeling much better. Since the first day I came back from Australia I was working really hard physically and also for my tennis. I am feeling better and better and starting to come back to my top level. I am happy with all the improvement I am making and I am happy to be back on the [ATP World] Tour,” said Wawrinka, a 16-time tour-level titlist. 

“For me it was really important mentally, but as well for my knee to see that everything is going to right direction,” the Swiss star added. “I knew I wasn’t ready to play at a good level and physically I was still far away from [where] I want to be. But it was important to test the knee, to see how it is reacting and also mentally to be a little bit back on the tour.”

The 32-year-old’s second tournament of the season sees him make his tournament debut in Sofia as the top seed following the withdrawal of Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov. Yet despite his seeding, Wawrinka maintains low expectations and is following the one-match-at-a-time tennis truism. 

“I always come into tournament to play my best tennis. [Winning the title] is not the goal you are putting in your head before a tournament. It is to be ready for the first match,” said the World No. 15. “I didn’t play for six months and I had only one tournament in Australia. So I think it isn’t easy. I know what I can do, I know what my level can be when I am playing good tennis. But first of all I am really happy to be back on the tour and to come to Sofia for the first time.” 

Former champions of the DIEMA XTRA Sofia Open, currently in its third edition, include home-favourite Dimitrov, who played a role in Wawrinka’s attendance at the ATP World Tour 250 event this week.

“I have never been in Bulgaria. [It’s] my first time,” said Wawrinka. “That’s why I am really excited. I’ve heard really good things… especially [now that] there is a tournament. We talked last year a little bit with Grigor about this. So I am excited to see your country.”

Sightseeing might be one of Wawrinka’s off-court goals this week, but as for on the court – the goal remains a simple one.

“My main goal is to come back at my top level physically and tennis-wise,” said Wawrinka. “I know it was really tough to be out for six months. Big surgeries take time to come back. So that is my first goal. When I feel ready with everything than I will try to see what more I can achieve.”

With the first Grand Slam championship of the season in the rearview mirror, the ATP World Tour’s stars are back at it in Montpellier, Quito and Sofia. The Open Sud de France and the Diema Xtra Sofia Open are both contested on hard courts, while the Ecuador Open is on clay. Last year’s Nitto ATP Finals runner-up David Goffin is the top seed in Montpellier, Pablo Carreno Busta leads the pack in Quito and Stan Wawrinka is in the No. 1 spot in Sofia.

View Draws: Montpellier | Quito | Sofia

10 THINGS TO WATCH IN MONTPELLIER
(1) Frenchmen Headline Field: Three of the top five seeds are Frenchmen in Montpellier, which is one of five ATP World Tour tournaments in France. Belgian David Goffin is the top seed followed by Frenchmen Lucas Pouille and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. The fourth seed is Bosnian Damir Dzumhur and No. 5 is three-time champion Richard Gasquet, who is the only former winner in the field.

(2) French Home Success: This is the eighth edition of Montpellier since 2010 (not held 2011-12) and in the previous seven tournaments a Frenchman has won the title or reached the final every year. Besides Gasquet’s three titles, Gael Monfils won in 2010 and 2014. In the only years a Frenchman did not win the title, Monfils was runner-up in 2012 and Gasquet last year.

(3) Goffin Top Seed: Goffin is making his Montpellier debut — this is the Belgian’s second tournament of the season. He lost in the second round at the Australian Open. Last season he finished a year-end best No. 7 in the ATP Rankings with two ATP World Tour titles and three runner-up showings, including the Nitto ATP Finals in London.

(4) Pouille Returns: The top Frenchman in the ATP Rankings, Pouille, makes his return to Montpellier for the first time since 2015 when he lost in the second round. Last year he won a career-high three ATP World Tour titles and finished in the Top 20 for the second consecutive season at No. 18.

(5) Tsonga on French Soil: Tsonga is making his third appearance in Montpellier after advancing to the semi-finals in 2010 and 2017. Eight of Tsonga’s 16 ATP World Tour titles have come on home soil, including two last season in Marseille and Lyon. Of his career-best four titles in 2017, three came indoors.

(6) Gasquet Eyes Fourth Title: Three-time Montpellier champion Gasquet has a 20-4 career record at the event, the most wins in tournament history. He is 18-2 since 2013. Gasquet has reached the final the past five years, winning three times (2013, 2015-16) and finishing runner-up twice (2014, 2017).1

(7) Simon Off to Fast Start: Gilles Simon is off to a 6-2 start after winning his 13th career ATP World Tour title in Pune in the opening week of the season. It was Simon’s first title since 2015 Marseille. He is 6-6 in Montpellier with a semi-final appearance in 2012 and three quarter-final finishes.

(8) French Wild Cards: The three wild cards are Frenchmen Julien Benneteau, Calvin Hemery and Pouille. Benneteau reached the quarter-finals in 2013, the best result of the trio in Montpellier.

(9) #NextGenATP Watch: The youngest player in the draw is 19-year-old Greek #NextGenATP star Stefanos Tsitsipas, who finished a year-end best No. 91 in the ATP Rankings last season. No. 6 seed and last year’s Next Gen ATP Finals runner-up Andrey Rublev is also making his tourney debut. If both players win their opening matches, they will meet in the second round.

(10) Doubles Draw: The top seeds are Ivan Dodig and Rajeev Ram, who are teaming together for the second time (2016 ‘s-Hertogenbosch). No. 2 seeds Marcus Daniell and Dominic Inglot reached the quarter-finals at the Australian Open. The other seeded teams playing together for the first time are No. 3 Roman Jebavy and Andrei Vasilevski and No. 4 Ben Mclachlan and Hugo Nys.

^{Gilles Simon, who triumphed in Pune, will attempt to win his second ATP World Tour title of the season in Montpellier.}
10 THINGS TO WATCH IN QUITO

(1) Clay Court Season-Opener: The first of 21 clay court tournaments on the ATP World Tour this season kicks off with the fourth edition of the Ecuador Open. This is also the opening leg of the five-tournament swing through Latin America, known as the “Golden Swing”. Victor Estrella Burgos has won every edition of the tournament, having completed a historic three-peat from 2015-17.

(2) Carreno Busta Leads Field: This is the fifth time Pablo Carreno Busta is the top seed in an ATP World Tour event. Of the previous four times as top seed, he won Estoril last May. Other seeds with a first-round bye are Albert Ramos-Vinolas, Gael Monfils and last year’s finalist Paolo Lorenzi.

(3) Pablo Top Seed: Carreno Busta is the first Top 10 player to appear in Quito and he’s trying to become the first top seed to win the title. Last season he finished No. 10 in the ATP Rankings, winning Estoril, reaching the final in Rio and the semi-finals in four other ATP events, including ATP Masters 1000 Indian Wells and the US Open. He went 0-2 as an alternate in the Nitto ATP Finals.

(4) King of Quito: Three-time reigning champion Estrella Burgos comes in with a 15-0 match record in Quito and all three of his final wins have come in three sets. Outside Quito, the 37-year-old from the Dominican Republic is 29-59 (.330) in ATP World Tour and Grand Slam matches. He is the only player in ATP World Tour history with three or more titles at one tournament and zero titles at all other events.

(5) Let’s Meet Again: Estrella Burgos and Thomaz Bellucci meet in Quito for the fourth straight year as they square off in the first round. Estrella Burgos is 3-0 against the Brazilian in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series (2015 SF, 2016 F and 2017 SF). Bellucci is 8-3 in Quito.

(6) Ramos-Vinolas Eyes Final: No. 2 seed Ramos-Vinolas is making his third straight appearance in Quito and the Spaniard has reached the semi-finals the past two years. Last year he finished a year-end best No. 23 in the ATP Rankings and reached finals at Sao Paulo and ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Monte-Carlo.

(7) Monfils Makes Debut: No. 3 seed Monfils opened the season with his seventh career ATP World Tour title in Doha (d. Rublev). Now the Frenchman is trying to win a second title in a season for the first time in his career. He won his first and only clay court title in Sopot, Poland in 2005.

(8) Lorenzi Aims For Title: No. 4 seed Lorenzi has made a year-by-year improvement in Quito, reaching the quarter-finals in his 2015 debut, the semi-finals in 2016 and the final last year. He is 8-3 in Quito. The 36-year-old Italian is 1-3 in ATP World Tour finals, winning his lone title in Kitzbuehel in 2016.

(9) Wild Cards: The two wild cards are No. 1 Ecuadorian Roberto Quiroz, who is making his ATP World Tour main draw debut, 18-year-old Frenchman Corentin Moutet, playing in his second tour-level tournament (0-1).

(10) Doubles Draw: The top seeds are Marcelo Demoliner and Purav Raja, who are playing together for the first time since 2014. The No. 2 seeds are first-time duo Treat Huey and Philipp Oswald, the No. 3 seeds are the Mexican duo Santiago Gonzalez and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela and No. 4 are Carreno Busta and Guillermo Duran, who won the Quito title two years ago in their team debut.

10 THINGS TO WATCH IN SOFIA
(1) Wawrinka Leads Field: Stan Wawrinka makes his Sofia debut and is the top seed in the third-year tournament on the ATP World Tour. The other seeds with first-round byes are Adrian Mannarino, Gilles Muller and Philipp Kohlschreiber. Three of the four (except Mannarino) won at least one ATP World Tour title last season.

(2) Stan Top Seed: Wawrinka is playing in his second tournament of the season after falling in the second round at the Australian Open against Tennys Sandgren. The 32-year-old Swiss native underwent left knee surgery last August and he finished in the Top 10 for the fifth straight year at No. 9. After his early exit Down Under, he fell out of the Top 10 at No. 15 for the first time since May 20, 2013. Wawrinka has 16 career titles, winning at least one title the past five years.

(3) Mannarino Eyes Maiden Title: The No. 3 Frenchman in the ATP Rankings, World No. 25 Mannarino, is playing in Sofia for the third straight year. The four-time ATP World Tour finalist is the highest-ranked player without a career ATP World Tour title. Last year he was runner-up in Antalya and Tokyo.

(4) Muller Back Again: No. 3 seed Muller is making his third straight appearance in Sofia after reaching the semi-finals in his 2016 debut and the quarter-finals last season. Last season Muller became the first Luxembourg player to earn an ATP World Tour title, winning in Sydney and ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

(5) Kohli Looks For First Win: After opening the season with his first winless (0-2) month in his career, fourth seed Kohlschreiber looks to get back on track in Sofia where he was a quarter-finalist in 2016. He has eight career ATP World Tour titles in 17 finals with his lone indoor final in 2009 Metz.

(6) Dutchman Off to Good Start: No. 5 seed Robin Haase began the first two weeks of the season with a quarter-final in Pune and semi-final in Auckland (l. to eventual champion Bautista Agut). The No. 1 Dutchman finished a year-end best No. 42 in the 2017 ATP Rankings, his third Top 50 season.

(7) Troicki Success in Sofia: No. 6 seed Viktor Trocki has a 5-2 record in Sofia, reaching the final in the inaugural tournament two years ago and the quarter-finals last year. Troicki turns 32 on 10 February, which is the day of the semi-finals. Troicki won last year’s doubles title (w/Zimonjic).

(8) Marterer on the Move: Maximilian Marterer came into this season with an 0-14 career record on the ATP World Tour. But the German left-hander broke the winless streak by reaching the third round at the Australian Open (l. to Sandgren). Last season he finished in the Top 100 for the first time at No. 90.

(9) Local Wild Cards: The three wild cards are Bulgarians trying to win their first ATP World Tour match. No. 2 Bulgarian Dimitar Kuzmanov is joined by Alexander Donski and Adrian Andreev. Kuzmanov has six Davis Cup wins while his countrymen have never played in an ATP World Tour tournament.

(10) Doubles Draw: The top seeds are Marcin Matkowski and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi who reached the quarter-finals at the Australian Open along with No. 2 seeds Nikola Mektic and Alexander Peya. The No. 3 seeds are Nicholas Monroe and John-Patrick Smith and No. 4 Robin Haase and Matwe Middelkoop, who teamed together to win the Pune in the opening week of the season. 

^{Mikhail Youzhny opens his Sofia campaign against a fellow veteran, Italian Andreas Seppi.}

Touching down in the Ecuadorian capital of Quito to play the Ecuador Open for the first time in his career, there was something different about Gael Monfils.

Having started off his 2018 campaign with a title at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open and pushing Novak Djokovic to four sets in a grueling second-round encounter at the Australian Open, there’s reason to believe Monfils has turned the page on an injury-marred 2017 and is approaching the new season with renewed determination and focus.

Oh, and a new hairstyle.

The Frenchman, who is known for both his showmanship on court and his vibrancy off it, met the press ahead of his first tournament appearance in Quito, debuting his new golden locks.

“To be honest with you, the day before I came here I [went] to my hair dresser just to fix my dreadlocks and I was talking with [her] and she said, ‘Why don’t we do a colour’?” recounted the 31-year-old. “I call my girlfriend and I call my agent and everybody said no. So I said, ‘Okay, I’ll do it’!

“So I stayed there for five hours to get that colour,” Monfils added. “It was very challenging and a great experience. In the end, I like it, it’s fun. Sometimes we need to do some crazy things, and I [said] if I have time to get back home I can put it dark for my girlfriend again.”

^{Monfils played with the Mayor of Quito, Mauricio Rodas, for 15 minutes on Saturday.}
The third-seeded Monfils will encounter a host of other challenges in Quito this week, including red clay during a period of the season in which he has historically favoured Europe’s indoor hard courts and the tricky high-altitude conditions of a tournament played 2,850 metres above sea level.

“You know it’s always challenging, every week is challenging. This week is another challenge. I always go with different challenges. This one because it is in altitude and it’s a different type of tennis; but I’m scared of nobody,” said the seven-time ATP World Tour titlist.

“I love to play on clay courts. It’s just a matter to fix myself with the altitude, then I think it’s going to be a great week for me.”

Monfils will open against #NextGenATP Norwegian Casper Ruud or Argentinean veteran Carlos Berlocq — and if he’s up to the challenge this week, the Frenchman might just walk away with a trophy as bright as his new golden crown of hair.

Estrella Burgos Seeks Four-Peat

In each of the Ecuador Open’s first three years, the same player has raised the trophy: Victor Estrella Burgos.

The native of the Dominican Republic will face Thomaz Bellucci in the first round — it is the fourth straight year they have met at the event (2015 SF, 2016 F and 2017 SF). Estrella Burgos has only made three singles finals in his ATP World Tour career — all in Quito — and has won each time.

If the 37-year-old hopes to add another trophy to his collection, he may have to play Monfils in the semi-finals.

“I really like challenges. I know Victor [Estrella Burgos] won three times,” Monfils said. “I will try to win my first round and then see if I can challenge him – why not?”

The top seed is World No. 10 Pablo Carreno Busta, who will face Rogerio Dutra Silva or a qualifier in the second round.

FRANCE 3, NETHERLANDS 1
Venue: Halle Olympique, Albertville, FRA (hard- indoor)

Adrian Mannarino banished the disappointment of his loss on Friday to beat Robin Haase in a five-set marathon 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-5, 6-7(2), 7-5 and book France’s spot in the quarter-finals of Davis Cup World Group play, in which the defending champion will play Italy.

“Having my teammates cheer for me meant I could fight point after point,” Mannarino told DavisCup.com. “I had to give it my all. I’m so happy to have this moment.”

Mannarino arrived late to the tie — he was in Malta on Thursday — after both Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Lucas Pouille were forced to the sidelines with injury. But Mannarino found his footing and earned his first Davis Cup triumph in dramatic fashion to secure France’s place in the last eight.

France and Italy have met on 10 previous occasions, with both nations winning five ties. But Italy, which will host the tie, has a formidable home record, winning 15 of its past 18 clashes on home soil.

BELGIUM 3, HUNGARY 2
Venue: Country Hall du Sart-Tilman, Liège, BEL (hard – indoor)

Belgium will travel to the United States in April for a meeting in the quarter-finals after 2017 Nitto ATP Finals runner-up David Goffin beat Hungarian No. 1 Marton Fucsovics 7-5, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 to clinch his nation’s 3-1 win in this weekend’s opening-round tie.

“I gave it a lot to win the second set and my level dropped,” Goffin said. “But I managed to find more intensity in the fourth and the key was to be more aggressive. I played really well in the fourth.”

Goffin broke Fucsovics — who reached the fourth round of the Australian Open last month — on six occasions to secure his 18th win in his past 19 singles rubbers. Belgium now moves into its third Davis Cup quarter-final in four years, after reaching the final in both 2015 and 2017.

“I left everything on the court,” Fucsovics said. “I played better in the third set but he raised his level at the important moments in the fourth.”

Hungary’s Zsombor Piros defeated Julien Cagnina 6-3, 7-6(3) in the fifth rubber.

Belgium has yet to defeat the United States, with the Americans holding a 4-0 head-to-head lead against their European foes. The United States secured its place in the final eight after sweeping the first three rubbers against Serbia.

CROATIA 3, CANADA 1
Venue: Sportska Dvorana Gradski Vrt, Osijek, CRO (clay – indoor)

The 2005 Davis Cup winner, Croatia, secured a home quarter-final meeting against Kazakhstan after Borna Coric defeated Denis Shapovalov 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 in Osijek, Croatia, to clinch a 3-1 victory for his country in its opening-round tie against Canada.

The 2017 Next Gen ATP Finals semi-finalist looked confident on serve throughout the match, winning 78 per cent of points behind his first delivery and holding all 15 of his service games while facing just one break point. Coric was delighted to win against a tough opponent — Shapovalov also qualified for the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals — in front of his home crowd.

“It’s the most unbelievable feeling in the world,” Coric said. “I was playing well for the whole match. Maybe there were some nerves, but as soon as I broke him in the first game, I felt good.”

Croatia and Kazakhstan have never met in Davis Cup play. Croatia will attempt to reach the semi-finals for the second time in three years while Kazakhstan will seek its maiden final four appearance after losing in the quarter-finals four times previously.

SERBIA 1, USA 3
Venue: Sportski Centar Cair, Nis, Serbia (clay – indoor)

Serbia and the United States returned on Sunday to play one dead rubber — Serbia’s Pedja Krstin defeated Steve Johnson 6-1, 7-5.

The United States secured its place in the Davis Cup World Group quarter-finals after winning the opening three rubbers of the tie, on Friday and Saturday, and will host Belgium for a place in the semi-finals. The United States has won all four of its previous ties against Belgium.