‘A lot of toil’ but no more airport floors

IT is January, 2016, at the Australian Open and John Millman is reflecting on his first six-figure payday and saying goodbye to sleeping at airports. The Brisbane pro tennis battler had just won the biggest match of his career, a secondround five-setter against world No.38 Gilles Muller, guaranteeing a $193,000 cheque. Up until then he had averaged $50,000 a year in a career wrecked by repeated injury including two shoulder surgeries. Of nearly a decade grinding on the lower tier of the pro tour, he said at the time: “It’s been a lot of toil. It's not uncommon to be sleeping on airport floors. I remember I was sleeping in Barcelona Airport floor because I couldn’t afford an airport motel. “It’s 2am and I’ve got my laptop bag wrapped around my arms, my suitcase and my tennis racquets all wrapped up around me because I don’t want my bags going missing.” He’s also slept on trains, survived on two-minute noodles and even joined the Brisbane workforce for a while working an office job during rehab. “There are plenty of stories like that and sometimes they are the ones which are the most memorable,” he said. “You remember moments like this and big matches you have played but actually life, scrubbing it out and meeting people you wouldn’t normally meet, that’s probably the best part.” Millman, 29, whose parents are teachers, has earned every cent of his now $1.8 million career prizemoney. For ousting great Roger Federer yesterday in the US Open fourth round he will bank $660,000 for making the quarter-finals and rise from 55 in the world to 37.