Different Drama

Walton had his car packed; Will the lucky loser's dream Miami run continue?

Adam Walton was ready to purchase a ticket for a 5:08 p.m. flight to Mexico City Saturday evening for an ATP Challenger Tour event in Morelia. He had been the fourth player on the lucky-loser list for the Miami Open presented by Itau and the second round of the main draw was underway.

Final-round qualifying losers Camilo Ugo Carabelli, Gabriel Diallo and Hugo Gaston had gotten lucky, but Walton was still waiting and hoping for a chance, which seemed slim.

“I had it all planned. I [had] all my stuff packed in the car, ready to go,” Walton told ATPTour.com. “If I lost, I was out of here.”

The Australian was on court warming up countryman Rinky Hijikata for his match when he received the news from an ATP tour manager that he would replace Hubert Hurkacz, the 21st seed, in the draw. Since Hurkacz was seeded, Walton would begin his tournament in the second round.

After defeating Italian Luciano Darderi, Walton is now a victory away from reaching the fourth round of the ATP Masters 1000 event. It is a big opportunity for a player with five tour-level wins to his name.

“Wins have been hard for me on the Tour. I think this was win number five out of 20-something, so I haven't won that much on Tour. I've done well at the Challenger level,” the four-time ATP Challenger Tour champion said. “Playing these big tournaments is obviously very rewarding, especially if you can win matches, because they offer the biggest prize money, and just everything around the big tournaments.”

Walton cherishes such an opportunity coming from a small town in Queensland called Home Hill. His parents, Sherry and Ashley, worked hard to provide Adam and his brother, Jack, with opportunities to play sports.

“I remember when we were really young — it's obviously a lot, very expensive, to go down to Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and play tennis. So I was always so grateful that they gave us the opportunity and decided to spend their hard-earned money on us doing that,” Walton said. “They didn't have to. We went through boarding school in Brisbane, which was very expensive. Those days were quite tough.”

The Australian’s mother is a nurse who worked night duty to help provide for the family while enabling herself to drive the kids around for sports after school.

“We did things a bit weird. We would finish school at three, and then we actually go straight and eat dinner at three. We were starving by the time school ended. And then we would go to sport at four, whatever sport it was,” Walton recalled. “And then we'd have ice cream for dessert or second dinner. And then we'd go to bed, and then she would work night duty, and then she would sleep during the day while we were at school, and then pick us up and repeat that process.

“That's just the sacrifice she made.”

 

The Walton boys were “typical country kids”. It was not a tennis family fully focused on one sport. Adam and his brother, Jack, even fished.

“We didn't take life very seriously. The school that we went to was small. Very relaxed lifestyle,” Walton said. “We'd fish on the weekends, we'd ride the quad bike, we'd play a variety of different sports. You knew everyone. We'd go to the bakery. Life was pretty, pretty simple. It’s memories that I often look back on.”

Walton fondly remembers the long cream donut he would always buy from the bakery. The Queenslander now travels the world for a living, but no long cream donut has beaten it.

One of the key moments that helped Walton reach this point was attending the University of Tennessee. The Aussie moved across the world to play college tennis for five years beginning in 2017 and left with an undergraduate degree in kinesiology and a graduate degree in management and human resources.

“Forever grateful [for] everything I’ve done,” Walton said. “When I went to college tennis on a full scholarship, I thought that I've already gotten so much out of tennis, and I didn't really know where I was going to play after.”

Now 25, Walton is thriving more than ever. And with a win against Coleman Wong on Monday, the lucky loser could turn into a big winner in Florida.

“You're seeing the big guys, the big names in the locker room. It's pretty cool,” Walton said. “You don't take it for granted, and you just try your best, and there's so many people chasing to be at these tournaments, so you don't take playing these for granted. Everyone earned their spot here.

“I'll just do my best to give it everything on Monday.”