24 year-old Clay Thompson, who had announced his retirement in September, decided to come back to the tour in 2017.
Thompson, a former number one of the American college tennis, reached a best ranking of 408 in 2016, before getting into a very negative losing streak. He called it a career in September after a second-round loss to the teenager Evan Zhu.
But this week he made his comeback in the Los Angeles Itf tournament, where he beat Ricardo Hocevar 6-1 6-2 before losing to Emilio Gomez 7-5 6-7(5) 7-6(5). Next week he will play another Itf tourney in California.
“Last year was a dark one for me,” Thompson said. “The reason I called it quits was because tennis was not fun anymore, it was such a financial struggle for me and I was not happy when I was on the court. It was not an enjoyable life, and being a professional tennis player and on tour should be.”
“Now, I want to go out and not just win, but have fun and do it my way, do it on my own terms” he added. Thompson has a very big serve and plays an old-school serve and volley.
His best results so-far was the semifinal reached at the Champaign Challenger in 2015, on indoor hard. He also played in the main-draw of the Hall Of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport and in the qualifying draw of the Indian Wells Master 1000, which he cites as his favourite tournament.
really happy to be back on the court competing, it means a lot to me to be able to do this, thank u all <3 https://t.co/zvJljjpP6K
— Clay Thompson (@ClarenceAThomp) January 7, 2017
