New Heights: by Adam Walton
“Tennis has obviously been a big, big part of my life.
It’s truly shaped where I am today.
The first time I played tennis was at five years old. My brother Jack, who is a year and a half older, and I would go down with our parents to the local tennis club and would hit the balls to each other while our parents played some social tennis.
I think that’s where it began.
At a very young age, we played every sport under the sun. We played cricket, tennis, rugby, swimming and ran cross country. We played a range of sports. When we were moving into the first or second grade of school, we would go on a Saturday and start the morning at tennis, follow that up by making our way over to our cricket game and then would have rugby league that evening. It was just chaos on a Saturday, but if it wasn’t for my brother wanting to do all of these sports, I really don’t think I would have gotten into tennis and been as competitive as I am today. I really have to thank him for that one.
We soon dropped out of the other sports to focus solely on tennis and rugby. We played both of those sports pretty competitively and we were both playing a few age groups up in the rugby league. Our dad was a pretty good player himself, so he was helping to coach us. He probably wanted us to choose rugby.
My brother had a very good build to play rugby, but ultimately he wanted to play tennis. That was probably at age 10 or 11. I sort of followed in his footsteps. I knew I was pretty talented at both of them but I liked tennis more.
Fast forward a few years later, my brother got a scholarship and then I followed to an elite private school in Brisbane to attend boarding school and play in their tennis program from grades 10-12. He was obviously one grade above me, so he went first while I stayed back in our small town of Home Hill when I was in grade nine.
He loved it and I went the following year. That was really the beginning of where tennis started to have a big impact on our lives, because we moved away from home, were doing boarding school and training pretty much every day in grades 10-12. I then started to utilize the national academy in Brisbane, which further elevated my game and took me to playing international tournaments where I not only competed, but by my grade 12 year, I was actually winning some of those events. I think I won three ITF titles that year and was actually performing pretty well on the world junior stage.
One of my favorite moments from my junior career was when I won a big ITF junior tournament in Fiji. I just had a feeling deep down that I was going to win. I said to all my mates in boarding school, ‘I’ll come back with the trophy.’ I may have said it in a joking manner, but I was kind of serious because I really did believe it. I remember my boarding master dropping me off at the international airport and I said, ‘I’ll see you next week with a trophy.’ I was that confident. I’m not a cocky guy, but I just had some sort of belief that week that I was for sure going to win this trophy. Fast forward a week later, and here I am handing him this trophy that I had just won. Winning that title was the biggest ITF title I had won. That whole week was a really fond memory of mine and I’ll remember that one forever.
Then, I took a big, big chance to come to America. It’s stereotyped in a bad way in Australia and I’d love to see a change, because the rumors back in Australia about going to college are completely false. But, I took the chance and it was probably the best decision I’ve ever made. I’ve now been here for five years. Coming into college, I would have never expected the college career I’ve had.
Back then (2017) it was rarer for high-level juniors or semi-high level juniors like myself—I was ranked 60 ITF—to choose the collegiate path because the stigma around Australian tennis is that if you are that highly ranked as a junior, you should start the pro tour straight away.
College tennis was considered to be just for those who were not going to be able to make a professional career from tennis, allowing them to play while they also earn a college degree. Really, that’s not the case. Even if you are a top-10 junior player, you should still come to college.
Look at Shunsuke (Mitsui). He was sixth in the world. If you asked him if going to college was a good move, he’ll tell you in a heartbeat that it’s one of the best decisions that he’s made. While he had a very successful freshman season, he still needs to grow. He has three more years of college to do that before he hits the pro tour and I think he can be a successful player due to him being able to progress his game in college.
The decision to come to the States still wasn’t easy, but the Head of the National Academy, Chris Mahony actually played at Tennessee and he was the head coach at Tennessee for a little bit. He had very close ties and obviously we have a very long tradition of Australians who have come to Tennessee. I also have a mate who was playing here at the time. I was kind of looking for an alternative option and didn’t want to go straight to the pro tour. I really did want to progress my game and try something new. That ultimately led to coming to the University of Tennessee.
We were ranked in the 40s or 50s at the time, so we weren’t a very highly ranked college. I wanted to go somewhere where I knew I could play middle of the lineup and not have that lineup pressure. I didn’t really want to go to a top-5 or top-10 school and try to fight for my spot every time. I didn’t want that extra pressure. I wanted to be able to play freely and progress my game the way I wanted to, rather than fighting each week just to play in the lineup.
Coming into college, I was very young. I didn’t know much about college tennis. I thought all of these guys who were ranked were miles ahead of me. Even the guys playing above me, I saw them as being much, much better than me.
My freshman year was eye-opening. I got into the ITA rankings but was ranked really low. I was always one of the last few spots. It wasn’t until my sophomore year where I really started to believe that I could beat these guys and go toe to toe with them. I know I had a very good sophomore year, where I rose up the ranks quite quickly and established myself at the collegiate level. I finished the year ranked 32nd in singles.
In my last three years of college, I’ve considered myself one of the better college players. It was all just due to belief and hard work. I improved every year. If you had told me coming into college that I’d be a four-time All-American, I would not have believed that.
Through all of that, I never really felt like I had to prove myself to anyone. I always knew who I was. I knew the game style that I’ve always played. I didn’t want to try and be someone I wasn’t. I just tried to mold my game the best I could to improve every day. I’m not a guy who’s going to hit 50 winners a match, but I try to do the things that I do well, very well. I pride myself on my mental toughness on court. I feel like I’m one of the most composed guys. It’s that that helped me rise through the ranks in college tennis.
Doubles in college has been crazy. I came into college barely knowing how to play the game of doubles. I did not play very good doubles in juniors. I was ranked high in juniors purely based on my singles. I didn’t win any junior doubles titles and didn’t even do very well in the doubles draws.
At the time, I had considered myself not very good in doubles.
I came to college and Woody paired me with Preston Touliatos, who was probably one of the best doubles players we had on our team at that time. We went up to a Princeton Invitational. It was my first collegiate tournament and we actually won that doubles draw. Then, I thought that maybe I should start focusing a little bit more on doubles. It just shifted the way I thought about the doubles game.
In college tennis, you practice doubles a lot more than in my junior days, where we wouldn’t practice any doubles. I had no knowledge about how the game was meant to be played, because all of my focus was straight on singles. I just remember in my freshman year, I actually had pretty good doubles success because I played with Preston. He helped me out a lot. He was a lot older than me and I learned through him how to hold my own on a doubles court.
Later that year, I paired with Timo Stodder, who was another one of the better guys on our team in doubles. So, I had good success in my freshman year, but then it went cold a little bit. As my singles took off in my second and third years, my doubles really didn’t do too well. I was probably 50/50 with my doubles matches.
Fast forward all the way up to senior year, Woody took a chance and paired me with Pat Harper, another great doubles player and a great friend of mine. We lived 10 minutes from each other in Australia. We played doubles back in Brisbane, but he was a junior at that time, so for the two years he had been at Tennessee, we had never been paired up together. He always played with other guys and I had always played with other guys.
We were on the bus heading to a fall tournament and Woody wanted us to play together, even though we weren’t meant to at first. We went 3-0 that weekend and had a very good fall, so he kept us playing together in the spring. We played line one, and it was really the first time I had been playing line one doubles. We were having very good success and we were one of the best teams all year. I think we finished the regular season ranked third in the nation, which secured All-America status.
I had gone unranked in doubles for three years to now being the third-best team and feeling like we were the best team. I knew in the month of May when we were in Orlando, we were playing our best tennis. We ended up on a 12 or 13-match win streak and we won a national title.
To do that with Pat was very special because we grew up together. I’ve known Pat for so long and you don’t win a national championship with one of your good friends every day. That’s something that I’ll always remember. We were playing very good tennis.
This year, Pat and I paired up again after Pat fully recovered from shoulder surgery. To get All-America status again in doubles goes to show that my doubles did come a long way in college.
I have so many fond memories from my time here at Tennessee. The best one I’ve had would definitely be the 2019 semifinals of the SEC Tournament. I was playing line two in my sophomore year. I think Florida was ranked third in the country at the time and was the number 1 seed. We were ranked 13th nationally and were the fourth seed. It was the semifinal and we played it in Florida, so it felt like it wasn’t a neutral site because they had a packed crowd.
We weren’t able to have the best preparation because the match before us finished really quickly all of the sudden when it didn’t seem like it would. So, we only had about 30 minutes to warm up and were consequently quite underprepared going into the doubles. However, we won the doubles point very quickly and kind of shocked ourselves a little bit, as well as Florida. I think having that 1-0 advantage really did make us think that we could win the match.
I got waxed in the first set and I said to myself, ‘Just keep going in the second. Just keep going and see if you can push it to a third. Don’t give up.’ We were down 3-1 in the total team score and then I remember Scott Jones won in the middle of the lineup to make it 3-2. Then, it was just me and Luca Wiedenmann playing on the court next to me, battling it out in third sets.
Obviously, we had to win both. Luca was down 5-3 in the third set and maybe even had match points down. He came back to save that and won 7-5. By the time he clinched, I was probably around 4-all in the third. I ended up breaking him at 4-all to go 5-4 up and serve for it. He broke me back and I thought I had ruined my chance. I end up breaking him again to go 6-5 up and I remember Woody coming over to me—with over 1,000 people in those stands—and said, ‘Enjoy the moment. This is why you came here.’ I’ll never forget those words.
I played a really good game to serve it out. I think that feeling of beating Florida at their own courts was probably the most satisfying feeling that I’ve received in the last five years of college tennis. It was one of the best moments that I’ve ever felt on a tennis court.
There are many people that deserve thanks for helping me along in my tennis journey.
My family has been very supportive of my tennis. I remember the junior days when we would have to fly down to Brisbane to get better competition. My parents had to work really hard because flights and accommodation were not cheap. They would try to give my brother and I the best opportunities in that way. This would have never been possible without them.
I have to thank my first coach: Aaron Klumpp. He was the one who started my tennis game. He gave me the technique I have today. He was the one who coached me all the way up until I moved to Brisbane. I still keep in contact with him today and whenever I’m home, I make sure I go see him. If it wasn’t for him, I don’t think I would be in this position either.
Obviously, I need to thank the National Academy of Brisbane. They progressed my game a lot. My tennis coach at my private school was Ian Malpass and he certainly helped my game a lot. He helped me grow as a person as well. I was a little immature when I came into boarding school. I really felt like I got my independence in boarding school, where I had to fend for myself. He taught me how to toughen up a little bit.
Progressing to the coaches at Tennessee, I have to thank Sam Winterbotham. He was the one who gave me my scholarship and gave me the chance at Tennessee. Even though he left before I actually got the chance to work with him, it was Sam and Woody who wanted to take a chance on me. Woody was the assistant at the time.
Woody’s been a massive part of my life. I don’t think I would have been anywhere near the collegiate player I ended up being if it wasn’t for him. He’s taught me the ins and outs of doubles. I managed to climb to No. 1 nationally in doubles. I got to No. 2 in singles and we got to No. 1 as a team. We did that all in Woody’s time as head coach, just a short period of five years so far. When he took over the program, we were ranked in the 40s. He has helped me a lot and I couldn’t be more thankful for all of the opportunities and help he’s given me.
I want to thank James McKie. He has also been very impactful. He helped me a lot in my first couple of years to settle into college. I feel like he takes a good role in taking care of the freshmen and the underclassmen. He was on my court predominantly my first year, helping me out with my game, mental aspects of my game and everything in between. He’s also been a great mentor the last couple of years.
Ben Testerman also had a big impact on my game. Ben and I worked together for two years when he was the volunteer assistant. He was on my court for every match in my second year. He helped me with my composure and with very tactical elements. The way he saw the game of tennis was unreal. I just think his knowledge of the game of tennis is second to none.
Ian Van Cott has helped me for the last two years. Ian was on my court a lot this year. We worked pretty well together on the singles court. He knows that I like to be left alone, but when he sees something, he’s sure to let me know. He was on my court at the individual NCAAs this year and I really felt like we could have gone all the way, as I was playing high-level tennis at the time.
As much as he wanted it for me and I wanted it for myself as well, we came up a little short in the semis. I remember him saying at the end of that match, ‘Hold your head high. You’ve got everything to be proud of and you’ve had an unbelievable career.’ He’s been a great person to know and have on my court through my last two years of college.
I also want to thank my girlfriend. I don’t think I would have been anywhere near the player without her. The stability I’ve had with her in my life having her support all the time has been great. I think she has probably been the most impactful person I’ve had during my time in college. I really started to see my tennis results improve quickly after meeting her and I don't think my collegiate success would have been the same without her support.
I’m going to finish school in the next couple of months, try to play a little bit here and there but obviously school comes first so I need to make sure I take care of that. Once I graduate with my Master’s degree, I will then look to play as much as possible.
I’ll start off in the Futures. I want to climb the ATP rankings pretty quickly. I feel like my game is there and I can climb from the start. It’s just about trying to get to that next step in the Challenger level. If I could be in mostly Challengers in 18-24 months from now, that would be a goal of mine.
Honestly, I just want to keep enjoying the sport and feel like I keep progressing my game. As long as those things keep happening, I’ll keep playing tennis.
Thank you for everything, Tennessee.”
