March 30 (Reuters) – Former Grand Slam champions Dominic Thiem and Stan Wawrinka focused on the positives on Tuesday after suffering back-to-back defeats on their return to competition from lengthy injuries.

Former US Open champion Thiem and three-time major winner Wawrinka was rusty as he returned to the Tour at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Marbella, Spain.

Playing his first match in nine months since injuring his wrist at the 2021 Mallorca Open, 28-year-old Thiem lost 6-3 6-4 to 228th-placed Argentine Pedro Cachin.

Thiem, who finished second twice at the French Open and once at the Australian Open before winning the 2020 US Open title, said it was a day with “great emotions and feelings mixed”.

“You can imagine how happy I was today to be on a tennis court, doing what I love the most: playing tennis and competing again,” he said in a statement. Instagram post, adding that the loss was “the bitterest part”.

“After all these months, all these setbacks that I had in the last few months, I was able to play again to feel the adrenaline of competition. I felt like a player again.”

Wawrinka, who turned 37 on Monday, injured his foot in early 2021 and underwent surgery. He lost 6-2 6-4 to No. 131-ranked Swede Elias Ymer in his first outing since his first loss at the Qatar Open in early March last year.

“I think physically it was good, it was really positive,” the Swiss told reporters. “I was super happy to come back to play a tournament, to feel the emotion, to feel the stress of a match again.

“I trained well and I will continue to train and build for the next few weeks. I’m not worried at all.”

Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai; edited by Peter Rutherford

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