Jack Draper believes the pressure he put himself under trying to catch Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner contributed to the arm injury that ruined his 2025 season.
British No 1 Draper played his first match in five months on Wednesday, beating Viktor Durasovic 6-2 6-2 to help Great Britain to a Davis Cup victory over Norway in Oslo.
The 24-year-old climbed to world No 4 last June but has since had to twiddle his thumbs while contemporaries Alcaraz and Sinner continue their domination of men's tennis.
But Draper feels he is returning an even better player and will soon be ready to challenge the Spanish/Italian duopoly at the top of the game.
"That was my goal anyway and potentially that's part of the reason why my body did break down," Draper told the Press Association.
"Maybe I was trying so hard to play in the right way, to hit the ball harder, to get free points in many ways and that just maybe was a stress for me.
"I've learnt a lot about myself mentally, physically. I've done a lot of things that I think have really put me in a good place.
"For sure those guys are leading the sport at the moment and I'm really hungry to get to where they are, so I'm going to do everything to do that."
Draper was diagnosed with a "complex" bone bruising injury in his left arm after a second-round defeat by Marin Cilic at Wimbledon.
"I wouldn't want any tennis player to go through this with their playing arm," he added.
"But at the same time, I have learned many things through this period, not only personally, but from a career perspective as well, that are definitely going to help me move forward and be a better player.
"And I do believe I'm a better player than I was in the summer, when I was winning lots and playing great.
"I think that you can only get to that point with the right mindset and seeing this injury and this lay-off as an opportunity to get better, and I feel I've done that."
Draper's first singles tournament since September's US Open - in which he withdrew after the first round - was due to be in Rotterdam next week, but he has now pulled out.
"As disappointed as I am not to be back out there, overall I am trending in the right direction," he said.
Victory over Durasovic proved to be Draper's only match for GB against Norway, but coach Leon Smith says that had always been the plan.
Asked if Draper had picked up an injury niggle, Smith said: "No, that was mostly going to be the plan [to only play once].
"Unless maybe he came off and said 'look, that was a really quick match', which is what, but it's still the first match that he's had back in five months.
"So unless he had knocked on my door and said 'no, no, come on, I want to go again', the sensible thing with him, his medical team, was to say 'let's get this match banked, do some recovery and then go from there'. It was the right thing to do."
Having been 2-0 up in the tie overnight, Wimbledon champions Lloyd Glasspool and Julian Cash survived a mid-match wobble to give Britain an unassailable 3-0 lead on Friday by beating Durasovic and Budkov Kjaer 6-2 2-6 7-6 (5) in the doubles.
British No 3 Jacob Fearnley got a run-out in the dead rubber and came from a set down to defeat Budkov Kjaer 3-6 6-3 10-7.
The 4-0 victory sees Great Britain through to the second qualifying round later in the year, against either Australia or Ecuador, for a place in November's finals.
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