Behind every successful athlete, there is a team working hard in the background to ensure the player’s success. The case of Aleksander Vukic is no different. The Australian star is having a dream run at the ongoing Grand Slam tournament Down Under. He has reached the third round of the Australian Open, his best performance at this level. Interestingly, Vukic has been around the tour for quite some time now but a massive move in 2022 changed the game for him.

Three years ago, the Australian star changed his coaching setup. While many have a traditional solo-coach setup, he hired two coaches working in tandem with him. Vukic is currently coached by both Nuno Lencastre and Jay Gooding. While the latter hails from Australia, Lencastre is from Portugal and both coaches have complementary skill sets to polish Vukic’s game. The 28-year-old was looking for two “different voices that are aligned” and he found the perfect combination in the form of Lencastre and Gooding.

Interestingly, Vukic was without a coach in the first three years of his professional career. Explaining this decision, he once said, “It got to the point where I wanted to invest more in myself. At that 200-150 ranking, if you bring in a coach you’re probably either breaking even or losing money so it’s a big decision.” Further, as he grew in his tennis career, Vukic felt the need to hire a coaching team and found the likes of Lencastre and Gooding.

When speaking about how this coaching setup has helped him, Vukic said, “I tried to do too much with it and I used to give away too many errors.  We’ve worked on making it more solid and have relied upon other parts of my game and made it less of a liability.  I think sometimes doing too much can be a problem.”

A high-flying Vukic will face Jack Draper in the third round of the Australian Open. Ahead of their match, Draper talked about an electrifying atmosphere in Melbourne.

Jack Draper urges home fans to continue the noise during battle against Aleksander Vukic

In the second round, Draper overcame a hostile Australian crowd to defeat home favorite, Thanasi Kokkinakis in an enthralling five-set match. In what was a see-saw battle, Draper came back strongly despite facing ‘abuse’ from the crowd to set up a match with another Australian player, Vukic.

Asked to describe the atmosphere of playing against an Australian player in Melbourne, Draper said, “It was amazing, an electric atmosphere. Obviously getting quite a lot of abuse from the crowd in between the serves. I think sometimes you don’t want to rile them or give it back. But to be fair, it gave me energy doing that. They are saying stuff to me. It’s nice to sort of just give it a bit of an ear. They were whistling and talking in between serves. It’s all fun but when you’re about to serve, it’s really difficult. But I have thick skin.”

Thus, it promises to be another exciting battle between Draper and Vukic. Their match will take place tomorrow at the Margaret Court Arena. Who do you think will prevail in the match? Let us know your views in the comments below.