Apia International Sydney Tennis - Australian Open Series

Family affair for Luczak

AAP Thursday 14 January 2010 5 Comments »

It may be family first for Peter Luczak these days but his tennis doesn’t seem to be suffering in the slightest.

In fact it just seems to be getting better.

The 30-year-old journeyman recorded one of his best victories on the ATP tour at the Sydney International on Wednesday, downing world No.20 Tomas Berdych 1-6 6-4 6-2 to set up a quarter-final against American Mardy Fish.

Rather than scarper in and out of his obligatory press conference after the victory, Luczak was happy to make it a family affair, bringing his Swedish wife Katarina and two small children Sebastian and Millie into the media area.

Given they’d been with him travelling around Europe to minor tournaments in a bid to resurrect his career, it probably only seemed like the right thing to do.

After missing four months of 2008 following surgery to repair a stress fracture of his right hip, Luczak made the difficult choice to go on tour with his young family.

Travelling occasionally with the clan when you’re a well-heeled superstar such Lleyton Hewitt or Roger Federer is one thing, but playing mostly claycourt Challengers where a win barely covers the cost of flights, train fares and accommodation made it entirely another for Luczak.

And while the move may not have made him a rich man, it did make him a happy one and his tennis improved with it.

Charting his ranking from April to October 2009 then became like watching Macquarie Bank shares on a bull run, from the depths of No.207 he reached a career high of No.64 on October 12.

He won three tournaments along the way.

While he’s eased back to No.78 in the months since then, getting to the quarter-finals of tournaments such as the Medibank International Sydney will ensure he gets back to that point and beyond.

“I’m in a pretty good position right now,” he said after the win against Berdych.

“I can get into a fair few tour events in a row. Straight after the Aussie Open I’m going to go to South America to play a few tour events there.

“It’s nice to be in the bigger tournaments. Last year my ranking was a bit down and I played Challengers pretty much all year, maybe played four or five tour events for the whole year.

“It’s nice to get this start playing Brisbane, Sydney, the Aussie, then four South American tour events. And it’s a good position to be in.”

Tags: Peter Luczak

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