Returning to an Australian Open main draw has been a challenging journey for a grateful Li Tu, who takes on No.24 seed Jiri Lehecka on Sunday.

Melbourne, Australia , 12 January 2025 | Andrew Eichenholz, ATP

Li Tu has one of the feel-good stories on the ATP Tour. By the age of 18, he quit tennis, earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Adelaide University and moved on with his life. Tu opened a coaching business with a member of his current team, Ben Milner, and enjoyed mentoring the future generations.

Six years after halting his career, Tu began forming plans of a return to the sport aged 24. It was not easy for the Australian on or off the court. In September 2022 his mother, Yu Ping Zheng, passed away after a battle with lung cancer.

But through it all, Tu has remained determined. That has been the driving force of his comeback, which has led to plenty of success.

In October 2022, he won his first ATP Challenger Tour title in Seoul as a qualifier. Last US Open , Tu successfully advanced through Grand Slam qualifying for the first time and pushed Carlos Alcaraz to four sets in the first round of the main draw.

“As a tennis player, you’re always chasing the next thing, right? You’re always chasing the next thing. But sometimes, I need to remind myself, ‘Hey, look back to where I was four years ago’,” Tu told ATPTour.com. “[I was] coaching, having nothing, this not being in my sights whatsoever. And then all of a sudden, playing back-to-back main draws at Slams. It’s truly incredible.”

Now Tu, at world No. 168, is set to compete in the main draw of his home major at the Australian Open, where he will face 24th seed Jiri Lehecka on Sunday evening inside Margaret Court Arena.

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But it will not be his first appearance at Melbourne Park. In 2021, he was awarded a wild card at the season’s opening major. It was just the second tour-level event of his return to the sport. He lost to Feliciano Lopez in four sets.

“I remember it being a very weird Australian Open because it was a Covid year. The crowds had maybe 200 people at the court. It was a strange one. It was definitely not as packed as it’s going to be this year,” Tu recalled. “But I remember, at least I thought my level was good, considering I’d only just started playing again, about five months earlier.

“I ended up losing in four sets. And I was happy with my performance, but it was a bit of a weird one. It was like, ‘Man, I played Australian Open main draw’. But it was so dead and so quiet. It was a weird one.”

The Australian explained that despite the circumstances, competing well against Lopez, then the World No. 65, helped set him up for the rest of his season. Four years later, Tu has charged from unranked to inside the Top 200. He recently added David Macpherson, former coach of Bob Bryan, Mike Bryan and John Isner, to his team.

Less than five months ago, Tu earned the right to compete inside the biggest tennis-first stadium in the world at the US Open. And now he will play in the second-biggest stadium at the Australian Open.

“Nothing can compare to playing on Arthur Ashe. Nothing. So I think that has given me so much preparation for playing in front of any crowd, any sort of hype or anything like that, which is amazing,” Tu said. “The Australian Open, already having played a Grand Slam main draw here, I think I’ll be able to handle that occasion better. I think I’m a lot more prepared to play best-of-five sets as well. Not just very prepared to play but also really, really keen to get in front of the home crowd.

“I was already feeling the love a little bit in Adelaide. I know that the crowd’s going to be amazing in Melbourne like they are every year. Really keen to play a home Slam.”

Some players enjoy a seamless path to the top of the sport in which they face relatively few hurdles. That was not the case for the 28-year-old Tu, but he has embraced the challenges and persevered.

“I just hope I can inspire the next generation that it’s never too late, and it doesn’t all need to look the same way in our careers, or a [Jannik] Sinner, where they’re just shooting straight up,” Tu said. “Everyone’s on their own journey and just [have] to do their absolute best.”

Republished with kind permission from ATPTour.com