Former Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic is to make one final attempt at returning to competitive tennis this week after being sidelined for eight months through injury.
The big-serving Croat, who won at the All England Club in 2001, will play his first match at the ATP championship in Milan on Tuesday and has also been granted a wild card for the World Indoor Tournament in Rotterdam later this month.
"This is definitely my last attempt to return," the 32-year-old told Monday's edition of the Jutarnji List newspaper.
"I had to give myself one more chance. I want to play fit at Wimbledon one more time and feel the atmosphere of the Olympic games for the fifth time."
Invanisevic underwent surgery on his left shoulder in 2002 and made a brief return nine months later. But the pain returned and he has not played since his first-round defeat at the Stella Artois Championships in London last June.
"This is a trip to the unknown for me," he told the paper. "But one thing is for certain, I am better prepared than I was a year ago. Training has been good, I could play normally.
"When I see (Andre) Agassi at the age of 34, beating players ten years his juniors I cannot help thinking: 'Why couldn't I do it too?'."
