Brian Baker will use his protected-ranking to gain entry into the main draw at the Australian Open in January. The American has not played a match since losing to Lleyton Hewitt at the 2013 U.S. Open, when he decided to step away from the game in a bid to get fully healthy for the first time in years. He was once considered the "next big thing" in American tennis. Now, he just hopes to be healthy and able to stay on the court, after numerous injuries have taken years from his career.

Pro Career Dates Back To 2003

Baker turned pro in 2003 at the age of 18 and showed tremendous promise as a youth. In his final year of juniors play in that same year, he made the final at the French Open. He would lose to Stan Wawrinka 7-5, 4-6, 6-3. He also made the quarterfinals at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. He would drop his first ATP level match at the Memphis Open in 2003, a 6-2, 6-0 loss to American Vince Spadea. From there, Baker began playing more on the Futures circuit after that loss. He would score some solid results and begin working his way into more Challenger and ATP World Tour events. His first Challenger level win came against Bobby Reynolds at the Binghamton Challenger in August 2003. He would play in his first main draw at a Grand Slam shortly after, as he lost a first round match to Jurgen Melzer in four sets at the U.S. Open. He would end 2003 winless in three ATP matches.

Baker Scores First ATP Win

The American would continue to gain experience on both the Futures and Challenger circuits in 2004. He opened that year with his first professional title at an F1 Futures event in Tampa, Florida. The next month would see him win his first ATP level match back in Memphis against Anthony Dupuis 6-4, 7-5. Baker would play his first Masters 1000 event in Miami in March, losing in the opening round to France's Cyril Saunier. Baker continued to show improvement and earn a reputation for big hitting from the baseline, as he clinched his first Challenger Tour title in Denver in August. He would get another shot at the main draw in the U.S. Open, but fell victim to Carlos Moya 7-6, 4-6, 2-6, 2-6. Still, his future looked bright at the ripe age of just 19 as he worked his singles ranking inside the Top 200.

Injuries Lead Baker Off The Tour

Baker scored the biggest win of his early career at the U.S. Open in 2005, when he knocked out 9th seed Gaston Gaudio for his first Grand Slam singles win. That was the high point, the low would come soon after as Baker suffered a hip injury that would lead to surgery in November. While recovering from that, he would suffer a sports hernia that would force him to miss the entire 2006 season. Baker would play just four Challenger matches in 2007 as he attempted to make a comeback. 2008 turned into a disaster as Baker suffered a ligament tear in his elbow that forced him to undergo Tommy John surgery. That is where the ulnar collateral ligament in the elbow is replaced with a tendon from elsewhere in the body. That came in February, followed by left hip surgery in April and then right hip surgery in June. Enough was enough for Baker. He would quit the tour and enroll at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee to pursue a business degree. All the while, his interest in tennis continued as he became an assistant coach on the Belmont tennis team in 2009.

Career Resurrection In 2012

Baker's body began to feel better as time passed and Baker got the itch to try competitive tennis again. He would launch a comeback in July 2011 on the Futures circuit, after missing nearly four years due to injury and recovery. His success was immediate as he won the first Futures event he took part in and then made the final of the Knoxville Challenger near the end of the 2011 season. It was enough to convince Baker that he was ready for tour life on a full-time basis again.

In 2012, he would go back and forth from Futures to Challengers early in the season. He would get on the hottest run of his career starting in April when he won the Sarasota Challenger on clay. He followed that at the ATP level by making it through qualifying in Nice, France and advance all the way to the final, where he lost to Nicolas Almagro. It was his first-ever ATP Tour level finals appearance. Baker would get his second Grand Slam win after that, with a first round win at the French Open against Xavier Malisse. He would drop a five setter in the second round to Gilles Simon,  where he led the Frenchman two sets to love at one point. The summer would garner Baker the most attention as he worked through Wimbledon qualifying, and made a stunning run to the fourth round. His ranking would reach a career-best 52.

Injury Sidelines Baker Again

As 2012 looked to be the realization of so much promise for Brian Baker, 2013 had other ideas in mind. At the Australian Open during a second round match with Sam Querrey, Baker would injure his knee and miss most of the season. He would battle back onto the court and play his final match of the season at the U.S. Open. Baker noticed his surgically repaired knee only got worse as the year went on and he again decided to leave the sport he loved, until he was at 100 percent health. The American never wavered from his belief that he would come back, telling tennis.com's Peter Bodo at the time "I’m still expecting to resume my career. Some people think that because I’ve been through this before it should be easier this time around, but it isn’t. If anything, it’s tougher.”

Doctors Clear Baker To Return in 2016

With almost three more years sidelined, news emerged in recent weeks that Brian Baker might be on the mend and ready to resume his career yet again. Baker told the ATP in a story on their website that he is cleared to make another return from injury. Baker said, "I got back from the doctor yesterday in Vail, kind of a final checkup, and they liked what they saw. They said I was free to train the way I want to train, as long as I’m smart about it, and do what I can next year."

For Baker, that means direct entry into the Australian Open in January. It will come a little over a year since his last surgery. Baker said he had the equivalent of micro fracture knee surgery on his right knee on December 31, 2014. It has taken until now for his recovery to get to the stage where he is cleared to begin regular training again. The American says that he has no major goals with this return, only that he wants to remain as healthy as possible, saying, "It’s just going to be getting back to match tough, making sure I’m able to be smart about my schedule, my training and everything else."

The Australian Open begins on January 18th. For Baker, it is a chance to start over at the age of 30 in a tournament where his last memory was a familiar one, being injured. It was the second round in 2013 against Sam Querrey where he tore the meniscus in his right knee. That injury has caused him to miss several seasons during what should be his prime years as a tennis pro. While others might scoff at having to go through the continuous rehabilitation process that all of these injuries have brought, this has become old hat for Brian Baker. Coming back from injury has been a way or life for him since turning pro and he has never shied away from the challenge. Melbourne will be hurdle number one in his latest comeback, a comeback that will be hard to root against.