Luke Saville: 'Last two seasons were not good, that should change in 2019'
Four or five years ago, Luke Saville had been among the most promising youngsters in the world born around 1994, winning two junior Grand Slam titles at the Australian Open and Wimbledon and winning his first Futures titles in 2012 to enter the top-400 on the ATP list. Luke had the opportunity to make a Grand Slam debut in Melbourne in 2013 but despite a few solid Futures results he was unable to continue his progress on the list, dropping out from the top-400 and having to excel his game if he wanted to make a name for himself on the Tour.
That certainly happened in 2014, winning 24 Futures matches to claim three titles from five finals and reaching his first Challenger semi-final in Traralgon. Ranked 236th, Luke qualified for the main draw at Wimbledon, beating Dominic Thiem before losing the second round clash to Grigor Dimitrov to enter the top-200 for the first time. The grass was always his lucky surface and he proved that in Newport as well, passing the qualifying round and winning one match to add more points to his tally. Saville couldn't keep the same pace in 2015 despite qualifying for the main draw at Wimbledon once again, lifting one Futures trophy and dropping two Challenger finals to somehow stay inside the top-200.
That wasn't possible in 2016, though, earning the spot in the Wimbledon main draw for the third straight year but missing a chance to play for the title at Challenger level and improve his ranking. The last two seasons were very disappointing for the Barmera native, bowing out from the top-500 and struggling to find the form and consistent results due to injuries. Still, Luke is determined to get back on the right course at the age of 24, reaching the final of the Australian Open Play-off earlier in December and playing on a very high level that gives him positive signals before the start of 2019. Luke has built a nice team and he will try to reach the ranking position he had four years ago, aiming the success on the Challenger Tour that will lead him towards the top-200 and give him fuel to finally attack the place in the top-100.
“Obviously (the past couple of years) hasn’t been ideal,” Saville said. “The tour’s pretty tough; I’m working out a lot of things about my game, and about myself really, the last couple of years. It’s pretty tough, the Challenger level – you can get pretty stagnant there. It’s been rocky, that’s for sure. The back injury I had in 2014 was quite a few years ago now, I’ve had plenty of opportunities since then. Physically I’ve been fine – I’m just trying to work my way back up. I had a couple of good months on the doubles court in 2018 – which certainly helps.
Any wins at Challenger level and the next level, I’m hoping for that to transfer onto the singles court. I wasn’t really comfortable with that before and I think having a good team around you is very important. That’s not putting the blame on anything else, but it’s started to really help my mentality as well, sort of feeling like guys are there for you in your corner. I’ve got a mate in my corner – Daniel Walsh – who I’m gonna travel with a bit next year and he’s also a tennis coach. And I’m doing a bit of work with a fitness guy here in South Yarra, in Melbourne.
I’ve never felt like I needed time away from the game – it was more just I guess about the set up a little bit. I’m just trying to chip away at my game; done some good work the past few weeks. I’m happy with my body, I’m happy with my game. I feel like the serve’s starting to come back … I’m sort of finding my grip back a little bit. Starting to win some of those closer matches which I’ve probably been losing. Now I’m going in with a bit more of a refreshed mentality.”
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2EMlPjp
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