Rusedski happy in defeat on his first step back
From Neil Harman, Tennis Correspondent, in Paris
Wednesday May 28 2003, 1.00am, The Times
HIS game was a little creaky and the voice extremely croaky, but Greg Rusedski was back yesterday at the sharp end of his life's work, and boy did it feel good. After a nine-month injury-induced layoff, Rusedski played his first match, at the French Open, and though he was beaten, his demeanour could not have been more confident. He secretly senses he can be a Wimbledon contender.
Just to have the chance to join in the locker-room banter, to hear his name announced at a grand-slam tournament, to walk out to a crowd's acclaim, to hit a crunching serve or two, to smack the dirt from the base of his shoes, those little pleasures tennis players take for granted, were like novelties to Rusedski at