As Ben Mitchell begins his first year on tour as a new father to three-week old Zara, he is hearing about how well others have managed on-the-road tennis parenthood. "People use that [example], 'you know, it worked for Novak, it worked for Roger'," Mitchell smiles. "I'm like 'yeah, but they've got 11 nannies'."
Not quite, but the celebrated collective owners of 27 grand slam singles titles and five children do have a more straightforward path into next week's Australian Open than the 23-year-old Queenslander. Mitchell forfeited his place in last month's wildcard final against James Duckworth to rush back to the Gold Coast for the birth of his first child with partner Lois Ovett.
Given that Mitchell had won three best-of-five singles matches to get that far, combined with the extraordinary circumstances and unfortunate timing, he had hoped to be granted a grand slam wildcard, regardless. Instead, the discretionary handouts have gone to Lleyton Hewitt, Omar Jasika, Matt Ebden and Jordan Thompson, plus play-off winner Duckworth. So qualifying it is.
But regrets? "Not at all," 235th-ranked Mitchell said after Wednesday's 6-2, 6-4 opening round defeat of Barbadian Darian King in extreme heat and a difficult wind at Melbourne Park. "Every time I see [Zara] it's just amazing. I was so excited to see her after my match, so it's a lot of motivation. It's obviously disappointing I didn't get a wildcard, but at the same time there's a lot of good Australian players that deserve one as well.
"Clearly if you're making the final of the play-off you're ready to play five sets – so it's tough. I had a very good end of year and I thought the final would have been close to a 50-50 match considering the matches 'Ducks' and I have had in the past, but at the same time it's [Tennis Australia's] decision and I completely understand and respect their decision as well."
Off-court, there will clearly be some adjustments, with Zara's first big overseas trip scheduled to take in Wimbledon mid-year. Mitchell, who will take the second of the three required steps into the Melbourne Park main draw if he can defeat Argentine Renzo Olivo on Thursday afternoon is staying on his own for the next few days, while Lois and Zara move in with his Melbourne-based brother, Daniel. "So I've had two really good nights of sleep," he says.
Help has come from both sides of the family, including Lois' parents, Rachel and Steve Ovett – the latter Britain's former Olympic 1500 metres track-and-field gold medallist. "They've been a massive help, and I guess I'll just have to pull my finger out ever more so with different things off the court," Mitchell says.
From the nine Australian men contesting qualifying, John-Patrick Smith was the first to advance – 6-4, 6-0 past Austrian Michael Linzer – with both he and Mitchell completing their matches before the extreme heat policy was invoked and play suspended as temperatures passed 40 degrees.
With aap
