Ginepri Starts Tennis Comeback With a Win at Nielsen

It took all of one set to know Robby Ginepri wasn’t worried about his elbow injury.

After a layoff that lasted nearly nine months, the 28-year-old American looked like the player who was ranked in the Top 100 for most of last season and had advanced to the fourth round of the 2010 French Open. Ginepri defeated Argentine Brian Dabul 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 at the Nielsen Tennis Center on Tuesday night.

“I’ve been practicing pretty hard the last three weeks and it held up through a lot of two-a-days and fitness,” Ginepri said. “I was pretty confident that my elbow is feeling up to par.”

Ginepri didn’t know what to expect coming back from the first major injury of his 10-year professional career. He broke his elbow back in September while riding his mountain bike near his house in Georgia and hadn’t played a match since last year’s U.S. Open.

As a wildcard in the main draw, Ginepri wasn’t given the easiest first-round matchup. Dabul, who is ranked No. 141 in the world, was the tournament’s defending champion.

“Brian’s a great player, he makes you play a lot of balls,” Ginepri said. “Drawing a tough opponent like Brian was a good test for me tonight.”

Ginepri cruised in the first set, hitting the ball well and capitalizing on an early break opportunity to take a 3-1 lead. With the help of a couple aces, Ginepri held in his final three service games to close out the set.

Dabul responded in the second, breaking Ginepri’s serve twice and coming up with a number of big winners to even the match.

But Ginepri was too much in the final set. He was more aggressive and continued to hit the ball well off both his forehand and backhand. For the match, Ginepri hit 31 winners, including nine service aces.

“After a layoff like that you can only do so much, but when you step on the court things can change,” Ginepri said. “All in all I was happy with the way I competed.”  

Once he finishes in Winnetka, Ginepri will play another USTA Challenger event in Aptos, CA and hopefully compete in a couple ATP tournaments, potentially in Atlanta and Los Angeles.

Ultimately, Ginepri said his goal is to play in the U.S. Open at the end of the summer. But there’s work to be done beforehand if Ginepri has hopes of getting into the main draw without going through qualifying. Before the injury Ginepri was ranked No. 102 in the world. Now he stands at No. 379.

Six years ago Ginepri peaked with a career-high ranking of No. 15. Along with James Blake and Andy Roddick, he was looked at as part of the future of American tennis. And while those titles may have been passed to the likes of Sam Querrey and John Isner, Ginepri still has time to prove he’s not an afterthought.

“It’s 2011 so I’m trying to live in the future and the present right now and not really look back at what I’ve done,” Ginepri said. “I’m going to try to get more results like [Tuesday night].”