Five years after retiring from professional tennis, Filip Polasek has capped off an incredible journey by qualifying for the Nitto ATP World Tour Finals in the doubles event.
It was five years ago that Slovakian doubles player Filip Polasek retired from professional tennis as he was struggling from physical issues.
At 28 at the time Polasek recalls some of the terrifying moments that lead to his retirement in 2013, “I had a nerve issue in my back, and I had loose discs in my spine,” Polasek told atptour.com.
“My leg would jump after matches. I’d get to the locker room and I simply couldn’t control the nerves in my left leg. f I didn’t physically hold it still with my hands, it would jump sometimes for as long as 15 minutes.
“To say it was bad is an understatement. I knew my career was over. But even without playing tennis, the pain wasn’t going away.”
Despite retiring for tennis, Polasek’s passion and determination for the sport never faded as it was clear he wanted to return.
These qualities lead him to return at the age of 33 to the ITF circuit with the pain going away slightly as he looked to once again enjoy life.
Making his ATP return in June was a landmark moment for the Slovakian as he prepared to team up with Ivan Dodig in Antalya.
Whatever thought about his return to the main tour, nobody could have predicted the season they would have had having reached the final in their first tournament together in Turkey.
The following week at Wimbledon they managed to reach the semi-finals and have only gone strength-to-strength, winning their biggest title in Beijing.
Now they have beaten the likes of the Bryan Brothers, Kontinen/Peers, Marach/Pavic and Murray/Skupski to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals.
The 34 year-old claims his season was all about making the impossible, possible, “A lot of people thought it would be impossible to come back to this level after my injuries and being away from competing for so long, but I love doing impossible things,” Polasek said.
“What’s even crazier is that my game is completely different. I have a different body and a different body weight. I play with different racquets and different string.”
Dodig/Polasek have been drawn in Group Jonas Bjorkman, where they will play former Wimbledon champions Kubot/Melo, Ram/Salisbury and Klaasen/Venus.
Their first match will be on Sunday when they take on Kubot/Melo, with Ivan Dodig making his third appearance at the season-ending finale.
The Croatian’s previous two appearances were with Marcel Granollers and Marcelo Melo.
