Fourteen long months after being forced to push pause on his tennis career after aggravating an injury, Karan Rastogi played his first match since surgery at the DLTA courts in the Capital on Monday. Chipping away at a few cleverly angled volleys and sending down some sharp serves the way of fourth-seeded Dutchmen Peter Lucassen and Jan-Wouter Roep, he played his part in a 6-1 6-4 win with partner Rohan Gajjar, and is looking forward to more.

“I felt fantastic out there, I didn’t play as well as I would’ve liked, but I did get in a couple of nice points. The main thing is to get as many matches as possible. I’m just seeing how it goes, but it definitely felt good to play a match after so long,” he told Sportline.

The 22-year-old has been training with the Commonwealth Games probables in New Delhi over the last week, and it’s been just about a month since he began practicing with a view of returning to the pro circuit.

“My back injury kept getting worse so surgery was the only option last year because it forced me to take a break every 2-3 months. It is always better to get it fixed. After the operation, I couldn’t sit for six months, I had to either stand or lie down, it was very difficult. It took me a while to get back on court, and earlier I was just volleying a bit, but now I’m going to the gym, running and training properly. I’ll be playing singles next week in the Futures here, and I’m also going to the Nick Bolletieri academy in a few weeks.”

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