A dream come true moment for Australia’s Olivia Gadecki! She’s all set to make her debut at the Rod Laver Arena. Gadecki will face the former world number 9, Veronika Kudermetova in the first round of the 2025 AO. She entered this season as Australia’s number one, so she has a lot of expectations from her fans in this mega event. Gadecki will be keen to live up to those expectations and make a winning start to her campaign in Melbourne. However, there’s an interesting story surrounding this rising star in Aussie tennis! What’s it?

Do you know there was a time when Olivia Gadecki had wanted to quit the sport? Yes, you heard that right! During a recent interview with ABC News, Gadecki was asked about the real reason behind that bizarre call. In reply to that, she revealed, “I feel like 15, that sort of age is quite difficult one because I think you know you start to grow up, mature a little and I just started training full-time in Brisbane and was getting the train every day. I was leaving home at 6:00 am and getting home at 6-7 pm and I was trying to balance school and then I was also traveling quite a lot and it all just caught up to me towards the end.”

She further added, “I just felt like my school was going down. My tennis, I wasn’t enjoying and I just decided that if tennis didn’t work out I still wanted to have something to fall back on and so the year after I graduated I felt this weight off my shoulders.” Gadecki said that she felt with tennis she has just got a certain period of time but on the other hand, with studies she can always do that as a student or even study while playing the sport. “For tennis, it was really a ‘I got to do now sort of thing…” said Gadecki.

Olivia Gadecki was raised by her mother, Natalie on the Gold Coast. Her mother played a crucial role in helping her fulfill her tennis goals. She started playing tennis at the age of three. Gadecki was always considered a prodigious tennis talent as a junior and when she was 12, she became one of the 16 players from around the world to get an invitation to take part in the Longines Future Aces competition in Paris. However, seeing her quit tennis shortly after that was a big surprise to a lot of tennis followers. However, it was the Aussie tennis star who later on encouraged her to return to the sport after competing her high school. Who was that well-wisher?

Who convinced Olivia Gadecki to make a return and give tennis another crack?

Currently, Olivia Gadecki is ranked 106th in the world and this year she also became the only Australian woman to get enlisted in the singles draw. Carrying the flag of her nation at such a big event is extremely prestigious, but Gadecki’s historic moment at the AO came almost two years ago. She won her first match at the AO in 2023. Olivia Gadecki took down Russia’s Polina Kudermetova in the first round of the mega event at that time, but she was defeated by Marta Kostyuk in the second round.

Nevertheless, it was a memorable experience for this youngster. However, tennis fans couldn’t have witnessed that moment without the contribution of Ashleigh Barty! Why is it so, though? Well, the three-time Grand Slam champion played a crucial role in convincing Olivia Gadecki to make a comeback. She has also acted as a mentor to her after that and in 2023, Ashleigh Barty shared some kind words about this young Aussie. What did she say?

“Liv [Olivia Gadecki] brings genuine life into Australian tennis. She is the one who injected oxygen back into my pre-seasons and my career and I know she has had a unique journey herself. Now I can see it in her eyes that she has got the hunger and the desire and it is about her now putting her head down and finding the ways to enjoy it and keep it alive and keep it fun,” said Barty. She also mentioned, “She (Gadecki) has got a mind that, tactically, is more aware than she knows, and I love spending time on court with her because she is a breath of fresh air.“

What does Olivia Gadecki have to say about her relationship with Ashleigh Barty? In that same year, Gadecki gave an interview to AAP and during that time she revealed, “I’ve been really fortunate to always be able to contact her if I have any questions or if I need advice, she has always been there for me. The best part is she just treats me like a normal person, and we can relate in that regard, and off-court is just as important as on-court.” 

On the men’s side, we’ve seen the likes of Alex de Minaur, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Alexei Popyrin, and a few others putting up a real show on the Tour. Do you think Olivia Gadecki can do the same on the women’s side in 2025?