Tennis player Tim van Rijthoven wants to make his return at the end of this month. The 26-year-old tennis player from Roosendaal last played a year ago. He is struggling with an injury to his elbow for which he underwent surgery a year ago.
Van Rijthoven is aiming for one for his comeback futuretournament in Faro, Portugal, starting on February 26. The futures are the lowest level of the international tennis tour. The former number 101 in the world was at the ABN AMRO Open in Rotterdam a year ago.
“I’m looking forward to it, sitting at home is now over,” Van Rijthoven said in a KNLTB podcast. “Things are going in the right direction with the elbow, I am very fit. The only thing I cannot do fully yet is serve, but that will take time.”
“Then you rethink your career. Will this turn out okay?”
Van Rijthoven did not touch a racket for four months last year. “Then you suddenly become a ‘gym rat’ and you rethink your career. Will this turn out okay? The success rate of the operation is 85 percent, but then the other fifteen percent goes through your head.”
Eighteen months ago, Van Rijthoven made his final breakthrough with a remarkable victory at the Libéma Open, the grass tournament in Rosmalen. In the final he was too strong for world top Daniil Medvedev in two sets.
A little later there was a new highlight for Van Rijthoven, when he received a wild card for Wimbledon. Ultimately, it was Novak Djokovic who proved too strong in the fourth round.