Australian Bernard Tomic is tentatively scheduled to make a return to competitive tennis sometime in mid-April in time for the Monte Carlo Masters. Tomic took a break from tennis following hip surgeries. His physiotherapist believes that he will show significant improvement following a couple of hip surgeries done in January.
It can be remembered that Tomic pulled out in his first round match against Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open 2014 which was reported to be controversial. It turned out, however, that the injury he sustained was serious enough that required surgery.
“For having had bilateral hip surgery, he’s doing very well, a little bit better than I thought he would at this time,” said Ivan Gutierrez, the Australian Open’s head physiotherapist.
“All the time that we’ve been working together he’s been committed to the treatment, and he knows the importance of it because all his career is just going to hinge on that, and hopefully he will be back soon and be able to play without pain, and regain more flexibility than he used to have.”
“He’s been very restricted, because tennis being a flexion, or bent-over type of a sport, and him being so tall, his limitations were significant, especially playing on grass and hard courts. It forced him to bend a little bit more than he had to, hence irritating the hip joints a little bit more than you normally would.”
“Now he has much more rotation both ways – internal and external – so he’ll be able to displace and change direction a little bit better, so I think he’ll be much more comfortable with his movement on court … I’m expecting between 20 to 30 per cent on what he had. We’re hoping for 30, but 20 would be great.”
