Growing up on Sydney’s higher north shore Alexsandar Vukic used to look at Wimbledon on tv – however he by no means imagined he’d play there.
Yet subsequent week, greater than 20 years after he first picked up a racquet, the 27-year-old will make his debut on the world’s most well-known grass courts.
An spectacular climb into the highest 100 has earned the Australian a spot within the event’s most important draw for the primary time. It is just not, he admitted to AAP, one thing he ever envisaged.
“It’s going to be very special. Very special,” he stated. “The Australian Open’s a home slam. It’s the favourite slam, but there’s something about Wimbledon.
“That’s essentially the most prestigious and I feel it at all times shall be, as a tennis participant, particularly from Australia, Wimbledon’s the dream. I can not wait. I did not give it some thought to be trustworthy. I truthfully did not actually assume this far.”
Vukic is one of eight Australians in Friday’s men’s singles draw (1900 AEST). Does he want a big name, or a more winnable match?
“If you are gonna get a giant title, higher to get them first spherical. And particularly on the grass, out of any floor, If (Carlos) Alcaraz or Novak (Djokovic) comes up, that’d be unbelievable.
And then he would get to play on Centre Court.
“Exactly. But I guess it would be nice to play them later as well.”
It has been an extended haul to SW19 for a self-professed late developer, his progress hampered by harm after which, simply as he was climbing the rankings, the COVID-19 shutdown.
At 17, Vukic went to Spain to progress his sport, then at 19 to America, to the University of Illinois. Having overcome harm, he jumped greater than 160 locations in a yr to interrupt into the highest 200 in March 2020 solely to be stalled by the pandemic lockdown.
When permitted, Vukic and some of the opposite Australians based mostly in Sydney practised collectively – “We mixed it up, we’d go to the beach even in winter, playing at different areas to try keep everything fresh” – however it was powerful, because it was for everybody.
“I think I struggled at that period,” he stated, “with injuries and mentally. Then last year I was getting back, got like to 130, and then got hurt for the majority of six months.”
But resilience is in Vukic’s DNA. His dad and mom, Rad and Lilijana, fled Sarajevo through the Balkan wars within the early Nineties together with his elder brother Vladimir. They left every part behind to make a brand new life in Australia.
“They literally came with nothing, like a thousand dollars,” he has recalled. “It was so tough at first. They struggled to find jobs. They worked their way up from nothing.”
Finally match, within the final eight months he has reached 5 finals in three continents, defeating compatriot Max Purcell to triumph in Busan in May. That surge took him into the highest 100.
“The tour rewards consistency, people who win a lot of matches. No-one really cares how you win. You try to find a way to win and that’s the goal for me, every tournament I try to treat it like it’s my last and see what happens.
“I’m in a superb place mentally. I’ve good individuals round me and simply I feel I’m attending to the purpose of my profession. I’m taking every part because it comes, simply attempting to get pleasure from as a lot as I can and see what can occur.”
It’s an perspective that ought to serve him effectively as he rocks as much as SW19 for the primary time.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
