The draw of the 2015 Australian Open. Qualifiers have to make their way through two of these to win the championship.

At age 34 years, Gregory Howe, a native Australian and English teacher in London, quit his job to chase his childhood dream: becoming a world-ranked tennis player. He gave himself a year, and if by the end of that year, he had not earned an ATP ranking point, he would give it up.

What would get under Howe’s skin so much that he would attempt this feat at such risk to his regular life? The otherworldly run of fellow Aussie John Arbanas — a local club player who had neither a major title, a world ranking, nor any sort of pro tennis career — through the 1991 Australian Open qualifying to the main draw. Arbanas literally came out of nowhere to notch victories over U.S. veterans Tim Wilkison and Glenn Layendecker before losing in the first round to Brazilian player Jaime Oncins.

The ATP website shows a listing for John Arbanas, but lacking much of a ranking or prize money.

“The guy was a right-hander, tan wiry and very fit, with a stylish baseline game where he'd let his free hand go on his two-hander like Mats Wilander, or Bjorn Borg,” Howe said from his home in Guadeloupe. “In those days of the Australian open, players often didn't make the trip down to Australia, and up until the early 1990s, there were often spaces in the qualifying where unranked Australian players with decent national rankings, could try their hand and sign in.

“I'm thinking maybe he caught some of the bigger American names a little under-done. But still, to beat them in a grand slam as just a nationally-ranked player is unthinkable. I always kept his 1991 Aussie Open run in the back of my mind… and when I finally achieved my first ATP point, I didn’t have to think twice. I was going to try do a John Arbanas.”

However, Howe, Arbanas and Marcus Willis — the come-from-nowhere teaching pro who came through Wimbledon qualifying to face Roger Federer on Centre Court —seem the last of a dying breed: the tennis journeyman, the players who carry a racquet bag and not much else on the road, sometimes giving lessons or stringing to earn money to keep playing. Recent changes made by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), which runs Grand Slams, have cut back the draw sizes and made ranking points harder to gain. A romantic tale the likes of John Arbanas — and even a Marcus Willis situation — might not come about today.

Madison Keys defeated second-seeded Iga Swiatek to make her way into the Australian Open women’s final on Saturday.

On 23 January, however, down under, a women’s final has been decided between the increasingly Centre Court comfortable Aryna Sabalenka (WTA No. 1) — a far cry from her yip-prone serving days — and the underdog American Madison Keys (WTA No. 14), after Sabalenka bumped-off her close friend Paula Badosa (WTA No. 11) 6-4, 6-2 in 86 minutes and Keys took out Iga Swiatek in a knife-edge 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (8) victory. From a set down, Keys pounded every tennis ball thrown her way by the nervy looking Swiatek (WTA No. 2), but questions remain whether she has the nerve for supreme shot-making in the biggest matches of her career — this will be Keys’ second Grand Slam final.

Meanwhile, on the men’s side, the experts expect Novak Djokovic (ATP No. 7) — under the tutelage of Andy Murray — to end the Grand Slam hopes of Alexander Zverev (ATP No. 2) in their semi-final meeting later today (Friday afternoon in Australia). Djokovic is searching for a record breaking 25th Grand Slam title — his 11th in Melbourne. On the other end of the draw, Jannick Sinner has overcome on-court sickness, blood tests and other medical evaluation to gain his spot against spoiler Ben Shelton (ATP No. 20). For Sinner’s health troubles and other reasons, Eurosport commentator (former player and chief English supporter) Tim Henman has sided with camp Djokovic/Murray. “Reflect on the Australian Open, he’s won 10 times, I think he's only lost one semi-final in Melbourne in the past,” Henman said. “He owns the place. Secondly, he’s never lost to Zverev in a best-of-five set match. So all the stars are aligning: 25th Slam in 2025, Djokovic is going to get it done.”

Novak Djokovic and his coach, Andy Murray, pumping each other up before a semi-final match yesterday. “It's the feeling of the older guys against the younger guys - that's what's driving them.” said an insider.

These days, the qualifying draws are more tricky to navigate than the main draw, but in the early 1990s players didn't want to travel to Australia just after Christmas. This allowed more byes... and, according to Howe, the author of the 2018 minor leagues of tennis travelogue, Chasing Points: A Season on the Pro Tennis Circuit, the tournament director had the discretion to allow unranked, local players in as wildcards. “Arbanas managed to play the qualifying two of three times without any ranking. He was from Melbourne, so it made sense. Also, the local players would be coming off months of open tournaments over Australia's summer holidays and come in very match tight, whereas the big overseas pros would often fly in after their six-week break.

More significantly than smaller qualifying draws, an earlier season start and better airlines, unranked players are strictly not allowed to try to sign-in for any ATP qualifying tournaments, including Grand Slam events and ATP Challenger qualifying. All ATP 250, and ATP 500 events — with some of the lowest ranking points on offer — also did away with old-school sign-ins at tournament directors’ discretion. These were replaced by an alternative list on which ATP-ranked players could put their names in case of a last-minute pull out. In the 2000s, events such as the pre-Wimbledon Queens Club Cinch Championships (formerly the London Championships) had a 64-man qualifying event, where many lower-ranked British players could play each year. Now, Queens Club has only a 16-man qualifying round with cut-offs close to the No. 200 ranking mark.

Gregory Howe, now 52, after winning a 2020 local tournament in Guadeloupe, the French overseas region where he lives and plays.

Similarly, the Kingfisher Airlines Tennis Open in Asia, the China Open in Beijing, and the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha, all ran 32-man qualifying rounds a week before the main event — Howe managed to enter all of them in Autumn 2007. “Qualies cost money to run and earn nothing,” Howe said. “And it's just a pain in the arse to run, so smaller is better for them. But of course now the bottleneck to get into ATP qualifying events is choking players movement up, so most are just trying to accumulate points in challengers and jump into the top 100.”

A 24-year-old Boris Becker ultimately won the 1991 Australian Open, defeating Ivan Lendl 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. As for Arbanas he never repeated his qualifying success. Once noted as “talented and temperamental,” Arbanas at one point received a five-month suspension from the Victoria Tennis Association for “breaches of the code of conduct rules” — likely choosing to wear t-shirts over collared ones, as was the fashion of the day. In fact, despite his feat, little has been reported of Arbanas since his ‘91 run, aside from a short stint as a warm-up for Wimbledon finalist and former No. 35 John Frawley, who was coming back from a wrist injury in 1990. “The gritty 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 win after a 160-minutes baseline duel with Melbourne pennant player John Arbanas was Frawley's first tournament success (in a while),” the Melbourne Herald-Sun reported. "I need match play, and a tough match like that will do me the world of good.”

Chasing Points: A season on the pro season circuit is available at Amazon, Waterstones and many other bookstores.

Eventually, Howe managed to climb the rankings to No. 1,222 and for a year, he juggled competing on the ATP tour with holding down a nine-to-five job and a marriage after moving to Dubai. Along the way he encountered almost everything the tennis world has to offer, from players whose hopes were slowly shattering, to rising stars racing to the top, from war zones with UN staffers in sparse hotels to ATP-sponsored digs and tournament cars.

With the aim to keep hold of his ATP ranking for as long as possible, Howe played one more ATP event in Doha in 2009, and reached the quarter-finals at a Futures event in Tehran in 2008. Out with injuries for two years, he had two children, wrote his book and started on a novel. Now living in Guadeloupe, Howe is thoughtful, but not overly so, about his unlikely run — a very fit sage for the younger up-and-comers. But don’t mistake that for him hanging up his racquet anytime soon. “One day I'd love to come back and play the grass court tournaments in the UK in the summer — this is heaven on earth for me.”

Rally: All Things Racquet (Demo Above)

Rally, conceived of and designed by two long-time players is both a booking interface on Kickstarter and an AI-powered concierge that:

1. Allows players to find, book and pay for both public and private pickle, Padel and tennis courts around the world with the tap of a phone
2. Gives users choice among surfaces, dates, locations and times to play their favorite racquet sports
3. Permits private clubs to sell their unused court time on the main app and gives them a bespoke white-label booking app for their members
4. Matches players with coaches to help them increase their business at public/private courts, and
5. Provides easy access to peer-to-peer hitting, as well as sessions with professional “sparring partners,” stringing, equipment purchasing and all things tennis, padel and pickleball.

For now, players can check out plans for the app on the Rally website — with free access to some of the best tips and tricks for your game.