Garber: Back to Paris for Bjorn Fratangelo

11:54 AM ET

You are a 22-year-old qualifier coming off your exhilarating first ATP World Tour-level victory, against No. 48-ranked Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia. And now, in a rush of adrenaline and emotion, you have just won six of eight games in the desert at Indian Wells and taken the first set from world No. 1 Novak Djokovic.

How do you process that? You don’t.

“I really wasn’t thinking at all,” Bjorn Fratangelo told ESPN.com on Wednesday. “I was just trying to block out any thoughts in my head, good or bad. I had a game point for three-all, but couldn’t convert.

“I learned a lot about myself from playing with him. Finding that confidence was huge for me. It’s been a bit of my downfall, questioning my ability. Everybody’s always told me I have the game to succeed at this level. At times, I really didn’t believe that. Now I do, and it feels good.”

After a trying end to the 2015 season — struggling with fatigue, injury and a death in the family — Fratangelo, in a back-to-the-future pierce of symmetry, finds himself headed back to Paris, the scene of his greatest title.

Truly out of nowhere, he won the 2011 boys’ junior tournament at Roland Garros. After five years of searching for himself, Fratangelo will return as a main-draw player.

Editor’s PicksFratangelo earns USTA wild card for French Open

Bjorn Fratangelo, who in 2011 became the first American since John McEnroe in 1977 to win the French Open boys’ singles title, has earned a wild-card entry for the main draw at Roland Garros.

He won the 2016 USTA Pro Circuit Roland Garros Wild Card …

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