Old foe an ally for Ben
A LONG-TIME rival is helping Ben Mitchell’s “last ditch” shot at a tennis career.
Mitchell, a TSS old boy, is continuing his renaissance on court after having taken a hiatus from the sport amid battles in his private life.
The 25-year-old former Wimbledon junior finalist returned with a bang to make the final of his second tournament back and showed promising signs at a Challenger event in Canberra in early November.
Instead of joining the world’s best at the Australian Open, Mitchell is preparing to play in Challengers at Canberra and then Burnie in Tasmania.
Nonetheless he is enjoying playing pressure-free tennis and says he has found an ally in another player whose career has taken a few twists and bumps along the way.
“I’m still taking it one step at a time,” Mitchell said.
“Like I said I was playing this summer and see how it went and if the body is healthy I will keep going but I want to play most of the Aussie stuff and then I will decide where I go from there.
“One of my good mates is Jason Kubler and we train together now a little bit.
“It’s kind of cool because we’re both in a similar position. We both grew up together playing each other and now it’s our last ditch effort for the both of us.
“He just won the Traralgon Challenger … he got told he couldn’t play on hard court for five years straight and missed out on Aussie Open wildcards and it turns out he actually can play on hard courts.
“It’s a good time for both of us – we’re going to try to really push each other.”
Mitchell holds no grudges about missing out on wildcards for the upcoming series of major Australian tournaments.
“It was hard for Tennis Australia to justify giving me wildcards, which is fair enough even though I think my level is there or thereabouts,” he said.
“I’m five tournaments in and there are some young guns coming through so I need to prove myself once again which I know I will do.”