London, Dec 14 (IANS): Jan-Lennard Struff on Thursday was named Comeback Player of the Year in the 2023 ATP Awards after overcoming injury to catapult from No. 167 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings to a career-high No. 21.

Struff was nominated in the Comeback category alongside three other players who have overcome injury to re-establish themselves as a major force on Tour — Dominik Koepfer, Gael Monfils and Alexander Zverev.

“I’m very, very happy and excited to win the Comeback Player of the Year award for 2023. I was nominated with Sascha, Domi and Gael, which for me deserve the award so much as well for their seasons, so congrats for this,” said Struff. The German also thanked his team and family in his video message, “Without you guys it wouldn’t be possible.”

Struff started the season outside the Top 150 but soared after standout ATP Masters 1000 results. He reached the quarter-finals in Monte-Carlo before he became the first lucky loser in history to reach a Masters 1000 final at the Mutua Madrid Open.

A run to the title match in Stuttgart followed in June, before a hip injury forced the 33-year-old to miss three months of the season, with Struff not holding a racquet for seven weeks.

He made a winning return in Zhuhai in September, though, edging Cristian Garin in three sets in his first match back before he advanced to his third tour-level semi-final of the season in Sofia in November. He ended the year at No. 25.

“I couldn’t have expected this, going this fast up to the Top 30 from outside the Top 150,” he said. “It was crazy how fast it went.”