CON AIR’S TAKEOFF STALLS

WC-CHRIS O’CONNELL (AUS) MAXIME CRESSY (US) COURT 3, SATURDAY, 4PM

CHRIS O’Connell could so easily be a never-been, not the feel-good Australian Open fairytale he’s become this week.

In fact, without his father’s intervention, he might not have picked up a tennis racquet again after his late teenage years.

O’Connell, now 27, was a pintsized kid who overcame those limitations with his obvious ability as a junior peer of Nick Kyrgios, Jordan Thompson and Luke Saville.

But there were serious problems once his belated growth spurt arrived.

O’Connell was in elite training programs by then and dedicating lots of time to tennis, and the combination resulted in him developing stress fractures in his back.

“I had close to two years away from the sport,” he said ahead of his third-round clash on Saturday with American serve-volleyer Maxime Cressy. “I didn’t think I was going to play again, but it was really my dad who kept pushing.

“I went back to school, finished Year 12 and, basically, once I stopped growing, the stress fractures went.”

O’Connell’s parents, Ian and Christine, are in Melbourne to witness their son’s greatest on-court moment, aware more than anyone of what he’s gone through to reach this point.

Them being there to watch his huge upset of 13th-ranked Argentinian Diego Schwartzman on Thursday made it even more special.

They helped bankroll him – even though he well-meaningly insisted early on that he would do it himself – as various injury and health setbacks haunted his career.

O’Connell’s had every bit as much misfortune as the likes of Thanasi Kokkinakis and Jason Kubler, without his story being told as often.

After the stress fractures, he contracted pneumonia in mid-2017, then had six months off the next year because of knee tendinitis.

When times were toughest, O’Connell cleaned boats, worked in a clothes store and did some tennis coaching – but being so close to the sport while injured made that bittersweet.

He rebounded to win an extraordinary 82 matches in 2019, having his passport stamped in Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Czech Republic, Italy, Finland, Poland, Romania and the United States.

He scored a wildcard into the 2020 Australian Open as a reward, his first time playing in the main draw at his home grand slam in three years.