Just 18 months after playing predominantly on world tennis’ Futures circuit, which involved sleeping on couches and hunting down tennis balls, the 25-year-old has hauled in a $NZ95,000 pay day at the Australian Open.
That came off the back of a dream run in which he reached the men’s doubles semifinals in his first grand slam, beating the world No1 duo along the way.
Alongside partner Jan-Lennard Struff, he eventually went down in a nail-biter against Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic 4-6, 7-5, 7-6.
Indeed, it was only his fourth ATP Tour event.
For most of the past 18 months, he has been playing on the Challenger circuit.
Less than a month ago he was unsure if his ranking would be high enough to even qualify for the grand slam.
That world ranking, which jumped from 200 to 73 in 12 months, is set to skyrocket even further — into the top 40.
Not bad from the Queenstown kid.
Eighteen months ago, he was arranging his own accommodation, transport and practice balls. He would spend most of his time on the road, which, on a low budget, brought its own challenges.
When he was in the United States and not at a tournament, he would head back to San Francisco — close to where he went to university — and sleep on mates’ couches.
How times have changed.
Perhaps his biggest change was switching to compete under the Japan flag, as his mother is Japanese.
It is hard to hold that against him, though. The switch has obviously done wonders for him and he is, for all intents and purposes, still a Kiwi. More so, he is a Queenstown boy coached by locals in older brother Riki and Lan Bale.
He returns to his adopted home tomorrow, where he will be part of the Japan team to face Italy in the Davis Cup in Morioka.
The next week he will play in Montpellier, France, before a few weeks in the United States.
• China has unveiled a strong team to face New Zealand in their Davis Cup tie in Tianjin, NZN reports.
The home side will be at full strength for the Asia Oceania group one tie next week, with top singles players Ze Zhang (ranked 181st) and Di Wu (249th) both available.
Also included is 18-year-old Yibing Wu, the US Open boys singles champion.
The New Zealand team of Michael Venus, Rubin Statham, Marcus Daniell, Artem Sitak and Macsen Sisam assemble in Tianjin next week.
The tie will be the first under the new format for Davis Cup zonal fixtures, played over two days rather than three.
