Just like the Divinyls classic, it’s been a fine line between pleasure and pain for Matt Ebden over the past seven days.
Last Friday he was over the moon at being a late call up for the Hopman Cup, his home tournament; but a calf injury in his opening match on Sunday night forced him to withdraw.
However some good news for the West Australian today, with the injury improving enough to let him hit the practice court.
“It actually feels pretty good today, I managed to have a light hit” Ebden said
“Didn’t do too much but it was good to be back out there and test it out.”
There were initial fears the strain could see him miss qualifying for next weeks Australian Open but Ebden is confident he has enough time recover to peak fitness.
“Playing in any grand slam of the year is obviously my goal but being my home slam it has a bit of extra significance.”
“Fingers crossed it pulls up ok tomorrow and I can start to up the ante in my practice.”
Ebden was in superb form on Sunday night leading former world number 14 Jerzy Janowicz 1 set and 5 games to 4 before injury struck.
“Taking it up to someone like Jerzy proves that I can still mix it with the top 50 in the world and that’s where I want to get to this year.”
“Fingers crossed it holds up and I can get a bit more practice in before next week because I don’t want to have to rely on a wildcard.”
Ebden will open his Australian Open qualifying campaign next Wednesday 14th of January.