Buenos Aires, Jan 8 (IANS/EFE): Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro will return to the ATP Tour after a more than 10-month injury absence when he takes the court at next week's Australian Open tune-up event in Sydney.

"I missed the tour, I missed to compete, I missed interacting with you on court and those feelings outweigh the pain in the wrist, which comes and goes and prevented me from having the ideal pre-season training," he said in a message to his fans on Facebook Wednesday.

In the same post, Del Potro also confirmed that he will play the first Grand Slam event on the tennis calendar, the Australian Open, which gets underway Jan 19.

"I don't expect great results ... At this point I don't care about the rankings. The situation is different. I take it as a reward for the effort that I put to return."

The 2009 US Open champion, whose ranking has fallen to No.135 due to his latest injury setback, has not played on the ATP Tour since Feb 25, 2014, when he retired during a match against India's Somdev Devvarman in Dubai.