Luckless Australian tennis star John Millman has revealed how he hit rock bottom before making a surprise comeback at the French Open in Paris.
Millman was drawing only positives from his 6-2 6-2 0-6 6-1 first-round loss to Spanish 17th-seed Roberto Bautista-Agut on Monday.
The 27-year-old Millman said being back on the grand slam stage was a dream come true after wondering whether a serious groin tear might end his career.
"If you'd seen me a couple of months ago, it was dire straits," Millman said.
"It was my conjoint tendon in my groin. The only way to repair it was to go under the knife.
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"For a while there, I went down the non-surgical path and there's a lot going on in your hips and groins and it's hard to get the right diagnosis and we probably went down the wrong path there for a while.
"But I'm very lucky to be steered in the right direction."
Millman's French Open outing was his his first top-level match of the year after surgery in February.
"That was my third surgery," he said.
"I said after the shoulder ones that I didn't want any more, but I love playing tennis and I love competing and I just love getting out here and getting amongst it.
"So that was defintiely the motivating factor when doing all the rehab."
Late-blooming Millman, who reached a career-high 60th in the world this time last year, needed an injury-protected ranking to gain entry to Roland Garros.
"It's pretty unfortunate after last year. I thought I was putting together a pretty good year," he said.
"But I'm probably still ahead of schedule. We pushed pretty hard for the French Open. The target was probably a bit more the grass.
"I fought as hard as I could.
"I would have liked to have kept it going a little bit longer, especially in that fourth, but I'll move on and get better; I just need matches now.
"I see no reason why in a month's time, after playing some matches on the grass court, I can't do well at Wimbledon."
