Back Surgery, Expecting Triplets, But Marcelo Rios Is Back!

A back injury required surgery and his growing family needed his undivided attention, but former World No.1 Marcelo Rios is finally back on the ATP Champions Tour after more than two years away.

The Chilean went down to Greg Rusedski in his first match at the Royal Guard Champions in his home town of Santiago, and then revealed he and his wife are expecting triplets before the end of the year.

Rios, who thrashed Andre Agassi in Miami in 1998 to reach the world’s top ranking spot, could not keep the smile off his face despite losing 6-1, 4-6, 10-4 (Champions’ Tie-Break) to Rusedski.

“For sure it’s nice to feel the support from the crowd again,” said Rios, who was greeted by 10,000 people in his homeland after reaching No.1. “It’s been a long time that I didn’t play at all and it’s always fun to play in Chile. Flying and being away is tough with my family so being here, playing so close to my home is really nice.”

He already has three daughters, and is very excited at the prospect of welcoming three more children into the world.

“That (having triplets) is one of the reasons that it has been more difficult to concentrate on tennis!” he said. “My wife is already 26 weeks pregnant and you have triplets at about 32 weeks so she’s pretty big right now. And I already have three kids, so I have a big family and soon it will be very big. It’s very exciting and once they’re here it will be a lot of fun. I always wanted a big family.”

Having endured back surgery, the challenge has been trying to find time to rehabilitate and return to the court, particularly when doctors suggested it may not happen at all.

“I’ve been not feeling that good physically over the past two years,” said Rios. “I’ve had back surgery and it’s been pretty tough for me. They told me I wouldn’t be able to play tennis again. I’ve just been trying to do my best to be able to get back on the court.”

VIDEO - Watch what happened in 2009 when our Marcelo Rios interview was interrupted by an uninvited guest. Watch.

Elsewhere, Mariano Zabaleta defeated Thomas Muster 3-6, 7-6(5), 10-7 (Champions’ Tie Break), and in Group B, Mark Philippoussis kept up the pressure on Carlos Moya in the battle for the South African Airways No.1 Ranking. The Australian overcame Thomas Enqvist 6-4, 6-3, but Moya was also victorious, beating Agustin Calleri 7-5, 6-2.

Matches are played over the best of three sets, with a Champions’ Tie-break (first to 10 points with a clear advantage of two) to decide the winner. After all round-robin matches are complete, the top two players in each group will meet in Sunday's final.

After Santiago, the ATP Champions Tour will move on to London for the year-end AEGON Masters Tennis at the Royal Albert Hall (Nov 30 - Dec 4). 

View the full schedule for the week.