Australian Open wildcard, Li Tu, throws support behind Project Six Foundation
By Jon Aspin
Project Six Foundation Director, Daniel Buberis, has been working with resurgent 24-year old junior tennis coach, Li Tu, as he tackled his first Grand Slam main draw in Melbourne.
It’s incredible the difference six months can make in the life of a professional sportsman. In the case of South Australia’s Li Tu, it’s night and day.
Having all but turned his back on a professional career several years ago, the former teen prodigy, who is currently unranked at ATP level, earned a surprise wildcard into the main draw of this week’s Australian Open.
Benefiting from a run of great form at the lower level, and a positive COVID test for former world number one, Andy Murray (Murray was unable to travel to Australia and take up the original invite from Tennis Australia) Tu went into his first slam as one of the biggest underdogs in the history of the event.
“There’s a lot of excitement,” he told The Age once the announcement was made, “but I also know that I‘ve got to play in three days and be ready to compete with the world’s best.”
Li Tu and Daniel Buberis before Tu took on Pedro Sousa at the River Murray ATP250 event at Melbourne Park, February 1, 2021 Source: Daniel Buberis
Travelling with him is Project Six founder and director, Daniel Buberis, who has been reprising the role of conditioning coach and mentor that the pair established during his junior career.
After representing Australia at Junior Davis Cup level as a 16-year-old, Tu walked away from the uncertainty of life as a touring pro. Content to focus on his high school and then university education instead – not to mention the successful coaching business he has now established in Adelaide – it wasn’t until his run of success at UTR tournaments last year, that Tu reconsidered his professional career.
In fact, he says it was a meeting with Daniel back in August that put him back on his current path.
“He said, ‘Let’s grab a coffee. You’ve still got it, man.’ Then let’s have a chat and get a plan going,” Tu recalled.
Winning 34 of 36 matches soon got the attention of Tennis Australia High Performance Head Wally Masur, who handed him a wildcard into last week’s Australian Open lead-up event, the River Murray Open. Although he lost in the first round to Portugal’s 110th-ranked Pedro Sousa (4-6, 6-7), Tu told P6F the next day that he felt that ‘he belonged’ at the higher level.
“I haven’t really played anyone at that level before ever, but I felt like I was competitive and was happy that I had chances to take it to a third set.”
“It took a little while to settle the nerves and get into the game, but after that I was able to compete and be in the moment.”
It’s the type of experience Tu will had to draw on when he took on tour veteran Feliciano Lopez from Spain in his first-round match on Tuesday afternoon. A winner of 7 ATP singles titles, the 39-year-old reached a career-high ranking of 12 in 2015, and is a three-time quarterfinalist at Wimbledon (2005, 2008, 2011).
By contrast, Tu said before the wildcard announcement that even making it to the main draw here ‘would be a dream come true.’
“It’s a crazy story, something I wasn’t even thinking about when I started my comeback. (But) now having been in the locker rooms with some of the other Aussie guys, I feel like I belong.”
On working with Daniel again, Tu said it gave him confidence to have his long time friend and mentor in his corner.
image source: instagram/@tuballz
“Having Daniel there has been huge. He always talks about ‘poise and energy’ when it comes to the big moments on-court. He’s helped me keep a level head when I‘m out there which is something I definitely struggled with when I was younger.”
He also threw his weight behind Daniels work with Project Six.
“It’s important to me to realise just how lucky we are in Australia in terms of being able to pick up a racquet or just play sport for fun,” he said.
“Having travelled a fair bit now with tennis and followed Daniel’s story, I know that this not the case in so many other places.
“Anything I can do to bring awareness to his work going forward, I will be more than happy to do. It’s such a good cause to be involved with.”
Li Tu took on Felciano Lopez in Round 1 and went down 7-6 4-6 6-7 4-6 at Melbourne Park on Tuesday. Other Project Six Ambassadors Lizette Cabrera and Thanasi Kokkinakis have also been in action. Cabrera went down to world number two Simone Halep 2-6 1-6 on Monday night while Kokkinakis beat Korea’s Soon-woo won 6-4 6-1 6-1 and advances to Round 2.