Christopher O'Connell

2011-2016: Professional Career Beginnings

O'Connell played his first ITF Men's Circuit match in October 2011, where he defeated Robert Howe in the Australia F8 before being defeated in the second round. O'Connell ended 2011 with a ranking of 1745. In 2012, O'Connell lost in the first round of qualifying for the Caloundra Challenger while attending the Australian Institute of Sport on a tennis scholarship.^[7] He played two more ITF tournaments in Asia before having an 18-month hiatus from professional tennis.

In 2014, O'Connell was given a wild card into the qualifying rounds of the 2014 McDonald's Burnie International, where he qualified and made the quarter-final. He then played a series of ITF tournaments across Australia before travelling to Europe. In June 2014, he played in and won his first ITF Men's Circuit final in Bol, Croatia. He returned to Australia and played in the Latrobe City Traralgon ATP Challenger. He ended 2014 with a ranking of 487. In 2015, O'Connell played sporadically on the ITF and Challenger circuits across Australia and Asia, without a title. His best result was a quarter-final result at Gimcheon Challenger. Also in 2015, O'Connell worked in his hometown of Sydney, Australia to save money.^[8] He ended 2015 the year with a ranking of 567.

In 2016, O'Connell won five ITF Futures titles across Australia and Europe.^[9] In December 2016, O'Connell said; “I decided this year just to play a lot of matches. I think I've played over 80 matches this year and I've predominantly been in Europe - I was there for about seven months just playing week-in and week-out on the clay so I've got a lot match fitness and experience.” ^[10] Massively improving his ranking in 2016, O'Connell finished the year ranked 237.

2017-present: Grand Slam & ATP World Tour debuts

In January 2017, O'Connell made his ATP World Tour debut after qualifying for the Sydney International. He was defeated in the first round by Portugal's Gastão Elias. O'Connell then received a wildcard for the 2017 Australian Open^[11] where he lost his first round match in straight sets to (then) world number 15 Grigor Dimitrov in his Grand Slam debut.^[12] O'Connell then competed in the Burnie and Launceston challengers, before competing on the ATP Challenger Tour across Asia, Europe and North America with limited success. In October, O'Connell qualified for and reached the semi-final of the Fairfield Challenger. O'Connell finished 2017 with a singles ranking of 393.

Singles

Result	Date	Category	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Winner	8 June 2014	Futures	Croatia F12, Bol	Clay	Gaston-Arturo Grimilizzi	7–6 (7–4), 3–6, 7–6 (7–1) [15]
Winner	28 February 2016	Futures	Australia F1, Port Pirie	Hard	Blake Mott	7–6 (8–6), 3–6, 6–2 [15]
Runner-up	27 March 2016	Futures	Australia F4, Mornington	Hard	Andrew Whittington	5–7, 3–6 [15]
Winner	24 July 2016	Futures	Serbia F1, Belgrade	Clay	Nerman Fatic	6–4, 6–1 [15]
Winner	14 August 2016	Futures	Serbia F4, Novi Sad	Clay	Stefano Travaglia	7–6 (8–6), 6–4 [15]
Winner	16 October 2016	Futures	Australia F8, Cairns	Hard	Blake Mott	0–6, 6–2, 6–4 [15]
Winner	20 November 2016	Futures	Australia F10, Blacktown	Hard	Max Purcell	6–2, 6–2

Doubles

Result	Date	Category	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Winner	13 September 2014	Futures	Croatia F17, Bol	Clay	Jonny O'Mara	Blaz Bizjak Peter Mick	6–2, 6–4 [15]