![\"Marc](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/1fd9e8feb443a3c0e7ff1305e00989af6ff0ed64.png\")
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November 1, 2026 \u2014 5:00am<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n No gift articles left<\/p>\n You’ve used all of your gift articles. 3 more will become available on the 1st of every month.<\/p>\n Close<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n This is not the Matthew Dellavedova you probably know of.<\/p>\n But this Matthew Dellavedova, the tennis player \u2013 not his NBA championship-winning cousin, who he has never met or spoken to \u2013 is becoming known in his own right, without LeBron James as his teammate or the money to hire a coach.<\/p>\n The 26-year-old from Wonga Park, a leafy suburb about 30 kilometres north-east of Melbourne, during the week in Tamworth became the first player since Ivan Lendl 44 years ago to record at least 100 match wins in the same season.<\/p>\n Dellavedova\u2019s tally includes 98 main-draw victories and nine of his 13 career titles, including slashing almost 300 spots off his ranking to reach a career-best No.237.<\/p>\n Related Article All this after losing five of his first six matches in January and watching his ranking sink to 530.<\/p>\n Dellavedova has enough perspective not to compare himself to Lendl, whose 1982 season included a 44-match winning streak amid a remarkable 107-9 win-loss record on the ATP Tour.<\/p>\n The Victorian has instead mostly toiled away on the lower reaches of the tour \u2013 from $15,000 tournaments up to Challengers \u2013 but no one can begrudge the results that have transformed his tennis life and put him on track to make Australian Open qualifying.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool. At the start of the year, or even recently, I hadn\u2019t really thought about the match wins, and it\u2019s obviously at a different level, so I understand it\u2019s hard to be put in the same sentence as Lendl,\u201d Dellavedova told this masthead.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I can also acknowledge that it\u2019s been a very successful year \u2026 considering [winning 102 matches is] something no one has done since Lendl.\u201d<\/p>\n In an unforgiving sport where players spend months overseas at a time trying to bankroll themselves \u2013 while pushing the limits physically \u2013 Dellavedova has had one week off all year.<\/p>\n And he wouldn\u2019t have it any other way.<\/p>\n A self-professed recluse, Dellavedova parked himself in Asia for five consecutive months mid-year, competing in China, Thailand, Japan and South Korea.<\/p>\n Far from the riches that Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and co. play for, those in Dellavedova\u2019s position \u2013 the journeymen hoping to one day join the elite \u2013 need to be frugal with their money.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cThe biggest thing for me when I\u2019m in Asia is I will have an outrageous amount of rice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe best thing about Asia is at basically all restaurants, they have stations of rice in there for free, included within the meal. I\u2019ll have white rice and chicken as a go-to, or within south-east Asia, I get a lot of beef pho \u2026 it\u2019s just rinse and repeat.\u201d<\/p>\n That type of penny-pinching has helped keep his financial outlay, including accommodation and racquet stringing (he does his own), to about $50,000 \u2013 roughly the same as the average annual mortgage in Australia.<\/p>\n To put Dellavedova\u2019s situation in perspective, he has pocketed barely $75,000 prizemoney despite his mountain of wins. It is why he remains reluctant to take the plunge and hire a coach.<\/p>\n But a reward may be on the horizon. Dellavedova\u2019s ascending ranking \u2013 assuming he can maintain it \u2013 means he could contest qualifying at all four grand slams next year.<\/p>\n He would have scored more than $40,000 for losing in the first round of Australian Open qualifying this year, and more than double that if he reached the third and final round.<\/p>\n \u201cEssentially, the slams are the closest thing tennis players get to a contract. It\u2019s the first real breathing room you have because you get a big injection of cash,\u201d Dellavedova said.<\/p>\n \u201cI was talking about it with some of the other players; about how tennis changes only once you get to that top-240 mark because that\u2019s when you get into slam cuts.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything else is more about opportunity. You\u2019re giving yourself an opportunity to be seeded or get into draws, but getting into the slams gives you that financial freedom to make choices that you otherwise wouldn\u2019t be able to make.\u201d<\/p>\n It is a lonely existence compounded by crippling pressure and self-doubt, which Dellavedova said was ever-present.<\/p>\n \u201cWhatever you do, you don\u2019t have that feeling of progression,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s almost like you push so hard for so long, but you\u2019re never satisfied. Complacency is a sin. You\u2019re always trying to strive for more. But in that regard, having those doubts makes me push harder and stay humble.\u201d<\/p>\n Related Article A two-time junior Australian champion, Dellavedova never contemplated doing anything else with his life.<\/p>\n His father, Peter, was a professional tennis player who went head-to-head with the likes of John McEnroe and Pat Cash \u2013 and now runs the Dellavedova Tennis Academy with another of his sons, Andy, in Wonga Park.<\/p>\n Dellavedova was travelling overseas for tournaments by age 14, and school became a distant second priority as he chased his dream.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew from basically when I was eight that this is what I wanted to do. I was obsessed with it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cNot only was I hitting all day, but I would come home and watch tennis all night. It\u2019s also a burden when you\u2019re so ambitious \u2026 but that\u2019s how I function as a human, to just constantly be at it.\u201d<\/p>\n News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n![\"Matthew](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/6278ce140d3161eff1e874e128cd16af48fe27f4.jpeg\")
Matthew Dellavedova has broken into the top 240 in the world.Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/b0df28cfc8dc400e627212e6b828b415f99581f5.jpeg\")
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Dellavedova hopes to contest all four grand slams next year.Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"Rising](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/e94e8af5e63387740dd3419bb76e3094b411e477e656aa52a519894c1d5570eb.jpeg\")
Rising tennis talent Matthew Dellavedova and his basketballing namesake. Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"Alex](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/be62e6a6cd24c1c270ee0aa636cab84e69a12334.jpeg\")
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