Back inside the world’s top 300, Australian Luke Saville is now chasing a spot in the Wimbledon qualifying draw.

Brisbane, Australia , 16 April 2024 | Leigh Rogers

Luke Saville is edging closer to achieving his dream of competing in singles again at Wimbledon.

The 30-year-old recently rose to his highest singles ranking in more than seven years, boosting his self-belief he can soon break back into the world’s top 250.

“I’d love to make Wimbledon qualifying,” Saville said of his 2024 goals.

“I still need a few more points for that, so for this upcoming swing in Asia, where I’ll play in five ATP Challengers, if I can go deep in one of those that will really help for my Wimbledon chances.

“That’s the goal. I think my game is there to do well, but obviously going there and doing that is another thing.”

Saville is a former world No.1 junior and won the Wimbledon boys’ singles title in 2011.

He has contested the singles main draw at the prestigious All England Club on three occasions, after staging three consecutive successful qualifying campaigns between 2014 and 2016.

He recorded his best Grand Slam singles result at Wimbledon in 2014, where he beat world No.57 Dominic Thiem in the opening round.

“I was brought up on grass,” said the South Australian. “So that helps a fair bit against a lot of the internationals there, because grass isn’t a really popular surface around the world. Us Aussies have that advantage, in that we grew up on it and we know all the ins-and-outs of grass-court tennis.”

Although Saville’s last singles appearance at Wimbledon was in 2016, he has played doubles at the Grand Slam tournament on several occasions since.

After reaching the Australian Open 2020 men’s doubles final alongside compatriot Max Purcell, Saville made doubles his focus for several seasons.

His doubles ranking peaked at world No.23 in 2021 and Saville achieved life-long dreams by representing Australia in Davis Cup and at the Olympic Games.

> READ: Aussie pair Luke and Daria Saville redefining “couple goals”

In August 2022, Saville decided to switch his attention back to singles. He was ranked outside the world’s top 1000 at that point, but has worked hard to currently sit at No.290.

“It’s been a bit of a journey, playing doubles for a few years there and then coming back to singles,” Saville said.

Yet he declared he is “really enjoying it”.

“I still had the drive to play singles and wanted to see what I could do before I call it a day eventually,” he explained.

“I’m plugging away. The next goal is to try to push into Grand Slam qualifying. Obviously, we’ve got the grass-court season coming up and I really enjoy playing on the grass.

“I’m just really enjoying the process and hoping to keep building on it this year and into next.”

For now, Saville’s immediate attention is on building his ranking playing a series of ATP Challenger events in Asia. He’ll compete alongside several Aussies, including close friends James Duckworth and Alex Bolt.

He has started promisingly in South Korea this week, qualifying at a tournament in Gwangju.

“It’s a pretty popular swing, we all like the hard courts,” Saville said.

“We’re a tight-knit group. We’ll definitely train, hang out and get around each other. We’ll probably play each other at some stage too, but that’s all good. It’s all in good spirits and we’re used to that.”

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