Winning Wave: Inside Liam Draxl's Challenger breakthrough & surfing passion

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Winning Wave: Inside Liam Draxl's Challenger breakthrough & surfing passion

Canadian leads ATP Challenger Tour in match wins this season

Stephen McGregor/Winnipeg National Bank Challenger/Liam Draxl Liam Draxl, No. 115 in the PIF ATP Rankings, is a surfing enthusiast. By Grant Thompson

After a relentless three-week run on the ATP Challenger Tour, highlighted by 13 wins in 15 matches and a title run in Winnipeg, Liam Draxl needed a release from the demands of professional tennis. For the 23-year-old, that only means one thing: surfing.

Draxl traveled to Halifax, Nova Scotia — on Canada’s far east coast — with his girlfriend Hunter, a Florida native who first introduced him to surfing. Draxl found the waves unforgiving when he first started.

“I remember it was just wipe out after wipe out after wipe out,” Draxl told ATPTour.com with a laugh. “Getting up on a wave and riding a wave is just a feeling I can’t describe. It’s pretty unreal.

“Just looking onto the face of the wave and seeing that water slowly peel in front of your eyes and feeling that kind of speed and push that the wave is sending you is pretty special. Whether they are big or small, fun rides or long rides, or even wiping out, it’s fun. I love it.”

With help from YouTube tutorials and plenty of practice, Draxl found his footing on a surfboard. He fondly recalls a previous trip to Halifax where he “caught his first wave” while receiving a lesson. The ATP Challenger Tour’s match-wins leader this season (39), Draxl enjoys the ocean, and other outdoor hobbies like fishing and golfing, to unplug from the tennis world.

“Usually I'm on the ATP app, I check all the results and I love to watch it, but out there, I was like, 'Whoa, I have no idea what's going on in Washington, or at the Bloomfield Hills Challenger',” Draxl said. “I was just totally disconnected for a few days.”

Liam Draxl says he was "hooked right away" on surfing. Credit: Liam Draxl

There could not have been better timing for Draxl’s mid-season recharge. Though it was short, Draxl’s three-day vacation came just before he travelled to Toronto, where he will make his tour-level debut at the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers against Pablo Carreno Busta, who in 2022 won the Canadian ATP Masters 1000 event in Montreal.

Draxl, at a career-high No. 115 in the PIF ATP Rankings, is competing as a wild card at the very tournament he grew up attending. Draxl is a native of Newmarket, which is part of the Greater Toronto Area.

“Every summer, most days I'd be at the tournament,” said Draxl, whose father, Brian, is a tennis coach. “It was just fun to hang out there in the summer with my other tennis friends and we'd play the little games on the grounds, mini tennis or try to hit the target.”

Draxl was like any tennis-obsessed kid, asking his tennis idols for sweatbands and towels. He recalls getting a picture with Gael Monfils. Now Draxl and Monfils are competing in the same tournament, though on opposite halves of the draw. It is a fitting, full-circle moment for Draxl.

“Growing up as a kid going to this tournament every summer and I was once a little kid dreaming to play this tournament thinking, 'Wow, it would be sick if I could play this tournament',” Draxl said. “And here I am, dreams are coming reality.”

A two-time Challenger champion, Draxl turned pro in 2023 following a standout career at the University of Kentucky, where he earned ITA All-American honours for three consecutive years.

While playing #1 singles at Kentucky, Draxl’s fellow Canadian and longtime Gabriel Diallo was often competing on the court right next to him, playing #2 singles. This season, Diallo has enjoyed his biggest breakthrough. The World No. 35 lifted his maiden tour-level crown last month in 's-Hertogenbosch.

Draxl and Diallo go back well before their college days. They have known each other since those formative under-12 tournaments.

“I just remember he actually wasn't super tall growing up in the juniors,” Draxl said of Diallo, who is now 6’8” and one of the biggest servers in the game. “I think I saw him maybe at under-16s or under-18s like the next summer and all of a sudden I was like, 'Wow! You grew an insane amount!' I remember that so clearly. He just had his growth spurt and all of a sudden he was a giant and hitting the ball so big. It was funny.”

Liam Draxl and Gabriel Diallo are both competing at the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers. Credit: Andrew Eichenholz/ATP Tour

Fittingly, Draxl’s two Challenger titles have come on home soil — Calgary in 2023 and Winnipeg this month. But before his title run in Winnipeg, Draxl suffered a six-match skid in Challenger finals, five of which were this year.

“It was in my head,” he said. “It's just after you lose three, you just want to win one and it's tough. I had to stop focusing on the win, like 'Okay, let's just go play a good match like it's a first or second round'. I think the pressure went away a little bit in Winnipeg because I was like, 'You know what? I've lost five or six finals, I've already went out there to the final and lost, so what is there to lose now if I just lose another one?'”

A week after triumphing in Winnipeg, Draxl finished runner-up in Granby, Canada to become the first player since 2022 (Pedro Cachin, Quentin Halys) to appear in seven Challenger finals in one season. There is a trend for Draxl off rising to the occasion on home soil, which is an encouraging sign as he prepares for the biggest stage of his pro career.

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