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Ross Hutchins was relishing the feeling of being a grand slam
winner again after achieving the latest milestone in his
remarkable comeback from cancer.
Twelve months ago the 28-year-old doubles specialist was
beginning six months of chemotherapy to get rid of the
Hodgkin’s lymphoma that had invaded his body.
Hutchins had to build up his fitness from nothing after being
told he was in remission in July but on a baking hot Melbourne
afternoon he and Scot Colin Fleming beat Marinko Matosevic and
Michal Przysiezny 4-6 6-4 6-0 in the first round of the
Australian Open.
It was Hutchins’ first victory since his return to the tour,
which came earlier this month in Brisbane.
He said: “It’s an amazing feeling to be back, and especially to
get our first win since coming back in 2014.
“I think we have played some good tennis throughout this year
so far, but unfortunately we lost our first two matches. My
level probably wasn’t as high as I hoped it had been.
“But I think we did well to dig out a win today. It was
actually brilliant to be honest, and I’m loving the feeling
right now.
“This is a fantastic tournament, and I’m just thrilled to be
back involved and back able to hopefully try to win more
matches.”
Hutchins approached his illness and debilitating treatment with
a remarkable positivity and has been welcomed back with a huge
degree of affection by the tennis world.
But the Londoner is adamant he does not want to be seen as a
victim and victories on the court, rather than on a hospital
bed, are what matter to him now.
He said: “It’s been nice to see a lot of people. I have had a
huge amount of support.
“But I don’t want people to feel sorry for me. After we lost in
the first week, (Jeremy) Chardy was saying to his coach he felt
bad for beating me.
“I’m like, ‘No, don’t’. I’m a player and I want to be treated
as a player. Today again, at the end of the match the guys
shook hands and said it was great to see me back.
“That’s really nice, it means a lot to me to have people
actually say that because I did miss the tour a lot, and
especially I missed playing with Colin and hanging around with
the guys and just seeing the guys that you see week in and week
out.”
Fleming and Hutchins made a nervous start in a football-type
atmosphere drifting across from the neighbouring court where
Bosnian fans, complete with an accordion, were enthusiastically
supporting Damir Dzumhur.
Hutchins dropped serve with a poor volley and they could not
get back into the set, with Fleming taking a medical time-out
to have his left thigh massaged.
The critical moments of the match came at the end of the second
set.
First Hutchins saved two break points in the ninth game before
a volley winner from the Londoner gave the British pair their
first break and the set.
Australian Matosevic and Pole Przysiezny never recovered from
the blow and it took Fleming and Hutchins only 20 minutes to
race through the deciding set.
Hutchins said: “The start of today’s match, I think we were
both a little bit nervous. We wanted it a bit badly. I played a
bad service game to start off, and then we weren’t getting
really very far in their service games.
“Then at the end of the first set, I think we picked our game
up and a couple of things clicked. Throughout the whole third
set, we actually felt like I hadn’t missed a year.”
Fleming had promised Hutchins on the day he was given the
diagnosis that they would team up again whenever his friend was
ready.
He said: “When we won I felt a bit emotional. It was a real
release.
“It was very tough this time last year. Even though I managed
to win a tournament in Auckland, it was an emotional time. And
it was tough to play without Ross, but I never thought that he
wouldn’t come back.
“I don’t know if that was maybe naive of me or what, but I
never literally once thought we wouldn’t team up again.
“I saw Ross play in September, at Davis Cup, and he was playing
well then. He’s hard on himself saying he didn’t play well the
last couple of weeks. He’s been playing great the whole time.
I’m excited for the future.”
Dominic Inglot made it two wins from two matches for British
doubles players as he and Filipino partner Treat Huey fought
back from a set down to defeat Colombians Juan Sebastian Cabal
and Robert Farah 4-6 6-4 6-3.
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