Christopher O'Connell


Christopher "Chris" O'Connell is an Australian professional tennis player. He grew up on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. O'Connell reached a career high ATP singles ranking of 114 on 3 February 2020. He made his ATP Tour debut in January 2017 in his hometown at the Sydney International, progressing through qualifying.

Career

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. 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. He ended 2015 the year with a ranking of 567.
In 2016, O'Connell won five ITF Futures titles across Australia and Europe. 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.” Massively improving his ranking in 2016, O'Connell finished the year ranked 237.

2017-2018: Grand Slam & ATP World Tour debuts, injury struggles

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 where he lost his first round match in straight sets to world number 15 Grigor Dimitrov in his Grand Slam debut. 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.
The 2018 season was interrupted by a knee injury for O'Connell where he was only able to play 24 matches across the Futures, Challenger and ATP World Tours finishing the year with a singles ranking of 1185.

2019-Present: Return from injury and first Challenger title

O'Connell began the year receiving wildcards into Qualifying for both the 2019 Brisbane International and 2019 Sydney International, losing to Christian Garin and Guido Andreozzi respectively.
After the controversial restructuring of the ITF/ATP points system and the launch of the ITF World Tour, O'Connell returned to the Futures circuit to start his 2019 season. Playing on clay, he made consecutive finals in Mornington before travelling to Europe to play in tournaments in Turkey and Bosnia and Herzegovina, winning titles in Antalya and Doboj while improving his ATP Singles Ranking to 559 and his ITF World Tour Singles Ranking to 52 by mid-May. “I had a fair bit of time off, so after coming back it takes longer to get into the swing of things,” O'Connell, said. “I finally feel like I'm starting to find a bit of form and get more comfortable on the court."
Reaching an ITF World Tour singles ranking of 5 and leading the Tour in Finals made with 10, O'Connell returned to the ATP Challenger Tour in July recording wins in San Benedetto, Sopot and Tampere, most notably defeating former world number 5 Tommy Robredo in straight sets in their second round clash at the 2019 BNP Paribas Sopot Open. Adjusting back to the Challenger Tour quickly, O'Connell made a breakthrough at the 2019 Internazionali di Tennis del Friuli Venezia Giulia in Cordenons, Italy, claiming his first Challenger Tour title with a straight sets victory over German Jeremy Jahn in the final. With his maiden title, O'Connell's ATP Tour ranking improved from 313 to 220 in men's singles. In September, O'Connell reached the final of Sibiu Challenger, which saw his ranking inside the top 200 for the first time.
In October, O'Connell defeated American Steve Johnson in straight sets to claim his second Challenger title of the year to at the 2019 Fairfield Challenger in Fairfield, California. Speaking of O'Connell's performance, four time ATP champion and former world No. 21 Johnson said: "I thought he played some of the best tennis of his life. Too good. And when that happens, you say ‘too good’ and move on." O'Connell then followed his title with a series of strong results on the Challenger Tour, making semi-finals in Las Vegas and Houston & a final in Knoxville where he was defeated by Michael Mmoh in straight sets.
He finished the year with a singles ranking of 119, a career high.

2020

In January, O'Connell reached the quarter final of the 2020 Bendigo Challenger. O'Connell was awarded a wildcard into the 2020 Australian Open, where he lost in four sets to 17th seed Andrey Rublev.

Personal

O'Connell is a supporter of English football club Crystal Palace F.C..

Challenger and ITF finals

Singles

ResultDateCategoryTournamentSurfaceOpponentScore
Winner8 June 2014FuturesCroatia F12, BolClay Gaston-Arturo Grimilizzi7–6 , 3–6, 7–6
Winner28 February 2016FuturesAustralia F1, Port PirieHard Blake Mott7–6 , 3–6, 6–2
Runner-up27 March 2016FuturesAustralia F4, MorningtonHard Andrew Whittington5–7, 3–6
Winner24 July 2016FuturesSerbia F1, BelgradeClay Nerman Fatic6–4, 6–1
Winner14 August 2016FuturesSerbia F4, Novi SadClay Stefano Travaglia7–6 , 6–4
Winner16 October 2016FuturesAustralia F8, CairnsHard Blake Mott0–6, 6–2, 6–4
Winner20 November 2016FuturesAustralia F10, BlacktownHard Max Purcell6–2, 6–2
Runner-up24 March 2019FuturesM15 Mornington #1, MorningtonClay Harry Bourchier4–6, 4–6
Runner-up31 March 2019FuturesM15 Mornington #2, MorningtonClay Harry Bourchier4–6, 6–4, 3–6
Runner-up14 April 2019FuturesM15 Antalya, AntalyaClay Ronald Slobodshikov6–7 , 6–3, 1–6
Runner-up21 April 2019FuturesM15 Antalya, AntalyaClay Christopher Heyman6–4, 3–6, 6–7
Winner28 April 2019FuturesM15 Antalya, AntalyaClay Jonáš Forejtek2–6, 6–4, 6–1
Winner19 May 2019FuturesM25 Doboj, DobojClay Botic van de Zandschulp6–4, 7–6
Runner-up26 May 2019FuturesM15 Brčko, BrčkoClay Juan Pablo Ficovich4–6, 4–6
Runner-up2 June 2019FuturesM25 Kiseljak, KiseljakClay Francisco Cerúndolo6-3, 4-6, 4-6
Winner23 June 2019FuturesM15 Balatonalmadi, BalatonalmádiClay Gergely Madarász6-3, 6-1
Runner-up14 July 2019FuturesM25 Casinablo, CasinalboClay Christian Lindell65-7, 7-5, 3-6
Winner18 August 2019ChallengerCordenons, ItalyClay Jeremy Jahn7–5, 6–2
Runner-up22 September 2019ChallengerSibiu, RomaniaClay Danilo Petrović4-6, 2-6
Winner13 October 2019ChallengerFairfield, USAHard Steve Johnson6-4, 6–4
Runner-up10 November 2019ChallengerKnoxville, USAHard Michael Mmoh4-6, 4-6

Doubles

ResultDateCategoryTournamentSurfacePartnerOpponentsScore
Winner13 September 2014FuturesCroatia F17, BolClay Jonny O'Mara Blaz Bizjak
Peter Mick		6–2, 6–4