Peter Luczak Interview Part 1

Recently I conducted an extensive interview with Peter Luczak, the clay loving Australian born in Poland, who came to Australia at a very young age via Sweden. He is known for his work ethic, down to earth manner and since this interview is comprehensive, it will be broken into different sections to make it easier reading.

First of all I have to thank Peter for taking time out to answer these questions and also I hope the readers will get a better insight as to what goes on at the lower end of the tour and other factors not just what happens on the court.

A sidenote, as I am lazy, usually when I do a tournament entry, I have all the discussion in that one post, as I can't be bothered updating.

This section will deal with the early parts of Peter's life and tennis career.

How and when did you get into tennis?

I started playing tennis at around 5 or 6 years old, Ola my older sister played, we rode our bikes down to the club after school, they weren’t the greatest bikes, but whoever won got to ride the better bike. In addition to that we used to play on en-tout-cas ( a surface similar to clay, but cheaper), whoever lost had to sweep the whole court and lines after the match, instead of just doing your side of the court, initially it was me that sweeping the court and riding the worse bike home.

My uncle and father didn’t play the game in Poland, they played football and volleyball, as tennis was not a big game in Poland when they were children, but they played as well.

What were your memories of growing up in Melbourne, before you left for the USA ?

It was a normal childhood. I used to hang out with the guys, go to the horse races, watching the football (Australian football), went to the parties, but didn’t drink as I usually had tennis the next day and I always wanted to play the game. I wasn’t a childhood prodigy like Bernard Tomic, I used to have group lessons, mixed in with some private lessons before and after school. Then at the age of 18 there was drastic improvement and once I left school, I wanted to play tennis.

How did playing on the US college circuit help you as a player and as a person ?

My dad said that I should continue going to school and he didn’t have the money to support my career. So a tennis scholarship in the USA was perfect, getting an education and also developing my tennis without the financial burden. I had 3 offers, but chose Fresno, mainly because of an Aussie coach there called Michael Hegarty a Mount Waverley boy, which wasn’t far from me in Melbourne. He talked it up and was very convincing in getting me there.

When I got there it rained 10 days in a row, when on average it rained only 5 days a year in Fresno. I called home and said get me out of here, what’s going on, but I was very happy to have stayed on. It was a great experience, the units, the courts, gym was a 50m walk to all of the facilities. The team environment helped my overall development, it wasn’t just tennis, tennis, tennis, and there was a good social life, in addition to doing uni work. Yes, I was focused on tennis, but had other distractions, which were positive.

The college coach was great tactically, though he didn’t do much technically to my game. He made you feel good about yourself, worked very hard with brutal training sessions and he instilled the brutal training and hard work in me that continues today.

How were the early years of being on the ATP tour and did you have doubts that you’d be able to make it?

The final exams, I left with a smile on my face that lasted 3 days. It was a mixture of excitement, high confidence level and I thought it was just normal, competing, traveling and getting ready for the experience.

24 hour Greyhound bus rides, as I was not a rich kid at all. There were a group of 7 of us in a basement of a house, 2 beds, 1 couch, and the rest slept on the floor. Before the tournament we would play games of cards or chess to decide who would get a bed, once you lost your singles match, and then you were on the floor. I got the nickname of “Lucky Looch” and “Diablo” because I was always winning these games and getting the bed. One of the guys traveled with a stringer, so he was able to do all of our racquets. When it came to food, there were the 29c McDonalds burgers, I would have 5 of them in one sitting, eating 2 minute noodles and the free player lunch.


What are your favourite tournaments?

Båstad, Kitzbühel and the Australian Open.

What’s your worst hotel experience?

In Fes, Morocco. It was a single room, no window, dirty towels, cobwebs, TV didn’t work. 10 out of 32 players got food poisoning, it was a terrible week, but I won the tournament.


What are the best and worst ever matches you have played?


Hopefully the best ones are still to come, the ones in the past are hard to remember. But here are two of them. Playing Oli Rochus in Melbourne. I got a standing ovation from the crowd and I had goose bumps, looking up at the crowd singing the national anthem and Waltzing Matilda. Also in Melbourne 2005 when I took Thomas Johansson to 5 sets, I had psycho fitness levels, doing runs on the sand dunes, stair runs and there is a trail in Melbourne called the Kokoda trail. That year I was not going to lose a match because of fitness.

The worst was playing the Srich (Srichaphan) at Monte Carlo, before that I played my match against Michael Llodra, during the warm up, we were hitting serves, I lost concentration and hit him in the ear with a serve, and he was daydreaming. At 1-1 in the 1st set he retired as he lost his balance and I got booed off the court.

I totally choked against the Srich. It was my first big tournament and I thought I am going to beat the number 12 in the world. I couldn’t get a first serve in at 5-4 when serving for the match. I tried only to hit kick serves and served 4 double faults in the game, yet still held match point. It was very difficult to get over it, for the next few months I had flashbacks to that memory, we’ve all had experiences like that, such a tough mental experience.

You’re the Lone Ranger in the context of being an Aussie, which has clay as his favourite surface, which is the domain of the Spanish and South Americans. How do you get along with those guys and do you think there is a mutual respect for you going to play there on their surface?

For sure I have a huge respect for those guys but I can't talk for them but hopefully they respect me as well. I love the way they compete and give it there all on the court but still at the end of the day can look their opponent in the eye, shake hands and have a beer and a bite to eat.