Anderson, Federer, Krajinovic, Nadal, Stebe & Tipsarevic Earn 2017 Comeback Award Nominations

The Comeback Player of the Year Award in the 2017 ATP World Tour Awards Presented by Moët & Chandon recognises those players who have overcome injury in re-establishing themselves as one of the top players on the ATP circuit. The winner, as selected by the players, will be announced ahead of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. 

Kevin Anderson
Injuries derail many careers, and some players never can play their sport at the same level again. But not Anderson. Not because of an ankle operation last spring, a dental operation or a hip injury.  Sure, a difficult 2016  health-wise set the South African back physically and literally at the beginning of this year — the right-hander did not play until Memphis and won his first match of the year in March. He didn’t earn victory No. 5 until May. But here we are, and Anderson has found arguably the best tennis of his life.

The University of Illinois product roared from as low as No. 80 in the Emirates ATP Rankings in January back into the Top 20 after advancing to the final of the US Open. It was Anderson’s first Grand Slam final, and not only that, he had made just one previous quarter-final at a major. Other strong results throughout the summer, including a runner-up finish at the Citi Open and a quarter-final appearance at the Coupe Rogers, put Anderson from nearly falling out of the Top 100 right into the mix for one of the final two Nitto ATP Finals spots during the last tournament of the regular season, the Rolex Paris Masters.

“I feel very honoured to be recognised as one of the candidates for Comeback Player Of The Year,” Anderson said. “I’ve worked really hard and had to face and overcome many challenges. My congratulations to everybody else also nominated who all have done incredible well.” 

Roger Federer
The 36-year-old Swiss defies convention. It can take months if not years to retrieve form after missing time due to injury. Federer fell to a year-end ranking of No. 16 in 2016 after playing his final match of the season in a semi-final loss at Wimbledon against Milos Raonic. Considering he had placed outside of the Top 3 just once in the 13 years before that, it was a shock. Entering the Australian Open as the No. 17 seed felt significantly abnormal, too.

Federer quickly corrected that, winning the first three ‘Big Titles’ of 2017 at the Australian Open, the BNP Paribas Open and the Miami Open presented by Itau to soar from No. 17 to No. 4 by the beginning of April. Since then, he has won Wimbledon, risen to No. 2, clinched his spot in the Nitto ATP Finals and claimed yet another ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title in Shanghai. Perhaps most astonishing has been his performance against his chief rival in Rafael Nadal. Federer has turned the tide in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, winning all four meetings this year. Getting seeded No. 17 in Melbourne seems like it happened years ago, but Federer is indeed back and possibly better than ever.

“It feels very special. It’s always nice to be nominated for any award from the ATP, so this one’s different,” Federer said “Being out eight months of the year last year, it feels great to be back on the tour, number one. Being healthy again, being able to play again with the best and live basically my dream — this one I really appreciate. I know that everybody in that category who has been nominated for Comeback Player of the Year deserves it because all of us did something very special, something that we can be very proud of. So whoever is going to win it probably feels like the other one should have won it too. I feel that way as well and I’m just happy I was able to play a full year this year, which is great.”

Filip Krajinovic
Wrist and shoulder injuries limited Krajinovic to just five events after April last season. By the end of the year, he had fallen to as low as No. 237 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, and finished the year at No. 234. He had not won an ATP Challenger Tour title since August of 2015.

But after winning a tour-leading five ATP Challenger Tour titles this year, it is safe to say that Krajinovic has bounced back. If there’s any sign in particular that Krajinovic’s level is only improving, look at his performance at back-to-back Challenger Tour events from the end of September into October — the Serbian won both titles in Rome and Almaty, losing just 37 total games. That is an average of 3.7 games lost per match, not just per set. He then qualified for his first ATP World Tour main draw of the season, winning a match before losing a tight three-setter against eventual finalist Ricardas Berankis. The effort helped Krajinovic achieve his career-best ranking of No. 75 on 23 October, and he is set to continue his rise after reaching his first Masters 1000 quarter-final at the Rolex Paris Masters. The two-time junior Grand Slam semi-finalist took adversity, and used it to propel him to his best tennis yet.

“The last five months was amazing. I won so many matches and it gave me a lot of confidence,” Krajinovic said. “It’s amazing to be one of these guys nominated for Comeback Player of the Year. Next to Nadal, Anderson and those guys, it’s for me a dream come true after so many injuries that I had the last couple of years. For me this year was amazing. I won five ATP Challenger Tour titles. Now I’m starting to play ATP World Tour more. Now I have the ranking to play and compete with the big guys so everything is going well.” 

Rafael Nadal
The Spaniard rode a roller-coaster last season. Nadal was forced to withdraw from Roland Garros mid-tournament due to a wrist injury, which forced him out of Wimbledon. Then, he showed signs of rebounding by capturing a gold medal with compatriot Marc Lopez in men’s doubles at the Olympic Games, but that positivity screeched to a halt after an early loss at the US Open and a premature close to the season due to his still-ailing wrist. He finished the season at No. 9 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, his lowest year-end placing since 2004.

It is safe to say that Nadal has done far more than ‘come back’ in 2017. He has roared back — to the tune of two Grand Slam titles, six total tour-level titles, 12 Top 10 wins and most notably of all, a return to the top of the rankings for the first time since 2014. This past spring, he became the first player in the Open Era to win 10 titles at the same tournament. Even more impressively, he accomplished ‘La Decima’ not just once, but three times with his triumphs in Barcelona, Monte-Carlo and Roland Garros. The ferocious competitor maintained his momentum through the second half of the season, with back-to-back titles at the US Open and China Open, and reached a tour-best 10th final of the season in Shanghai. Ahead of the Nitto ATP Finals, Nadal clinched year-end No. 1 — nine years after he first accomplished the feat — and rewrote history books as the oldest player to finish a season as the ATP World Tour’s top player. Will the 31-year-old slow down? He showed no signs of it in 2017.

“When you get an injury, then it seems like the season is a disaster. But the real disaster of last year was the injuries. Because the level of tennis, when I was playing after Indian Wells, was good in almost all the events, no?” said Nadal at the US Open. “Of course it’s difficult to imagine eight or nine months ago that [Roger and I would] be winning two Grand Slams each. But here we are, and just can say thanks to life for that opportunity. I think I did the right work. I believed on the work, on the diary work all the time. I still believe on these things to improve, and I wake up every morning with the passion to go on court and to try to improve things. Probably that’s why I still have chances to compete in this sport and to do it well.” 

Cedrik-Marcel Stebe
Stebe was No. 470 in the Emirates ATP Rankings at the beginning of the season. It had been just about three years since he had been inside the Top 200. Injuries plagued what looked like a promising career — he won the ATP Challenger Tour Finals in 2011 at the age of 21. But from hip impingement surgery to back problems and pelvic surgery to a stress fracture of his pubic bone, Stebe faced hurdle after hurdle.

Yet this season, the German has not just come back, but soared back inside the Top 100 thanks to a quarter-final run at the Banque Eric Sturdza Geneva Open as a lucky loser, three Challenger Tour trophies and not just his first Grand Slam main draw appearance since the 2013 Australian Open, but his first Slam victory since the 2012 US Open. Now, Stebe is up to No. 80 in the world, and nearing his career-high ranking of No. 71, which he achieved in 2012. The road back has been long and jagged, but Stebe is back on the rise.

“After still struggling in the first half of the season, I managed to turn it around in the second part with many good tournaments and wins in a very short period,” Stebe said. “After such a [great] season I’m extremely happy to be nominated for the Comeback Player Of The Year Award. The only thing that can top this now is if I win!” 

Janko Tipsarevic
For nearly two years, the Serbian found himself outside of the Top 300 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. That was certainly unfamiliar territory for a former Top 10 player who won four ATP World Tour titles and advanced to five more finals between 2011 and 2013 alone. But recurring foot problems kept the right-hander off the court for much of two years. So inevitably, Tipsarevic tumbled down the rankings. On 16 May 2016, he was No. 686 in the world.

A year later, Tipsarevic was No. 61, completing an astonishing 625-spot rise in just one year. He won the four ATP Challenger Tour titles he played this season, dropping just two sets over the course of four tournaments — that is 40 of 42 sets won. The 33-year-old reached as high as No. 58 in the rankings, showing that he is still capable of competing at a high level. But hamstring issues forced Tipsarevic to undergo surgery in late September, after only playing three events following Wimbledon. Tipsarevic says he is set to return in the first quarter of 2018.

“Privilege to be nominated,” Tipsarevic posted on Instagram. “Thanks @atpworldtour #keepdigging.”

Comeback Player of the Year:
The player who has overcome serious injury in re-establishing himself as one of the top players on the ATP World Tour.