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MELBOURNE, Australia – When he arrived in Melbourne, Canadian Liam Draxl hadn’t ever won a match in Grand Slam qualifying.

Three attempts in 2025 – in Paris, Wimbledon and the US Open. Three first-round losses.

All that changed this week, as the 24-year-old from Newmarket, Ont. won three straight matches to qualify for the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in his young career.

He will face Bosnian veteran Damir Dzumhur in the first round.

“I had a few issues in those first Grand Slam qualifying tries – a little sick, a little injured. All three times I wasn’t 100 per cent. So I’m just so, so, so thankful,” he said.

It wasn’t just THAT he did it, but HOW he did it. Two consecutive comeback wins under difficult circumstances might well end up being a turning point in his career.

“It’s my character to dig in and fight and grind. But I don’t think I’ve usually won those matches. I feel like a lot of times on Tour I win that long match, I fight hard, but then the day after it’s really tough to come back and win that (next) one. So I’m really happy I was able to,” he said.

In contrast to some of his previous Slam opponents, Draxl’s opener was a winnable one: Aussie wild card Moerani Mouzige, who has never broken the top 300 on the ATP Tour in his career. It was tight – 7-6 (3), 6-3, but it took just 1h35 and was confidently executed.

Second up was Sachko

The second round, against Ukraine’s Vitaliy Sachko, presented a different problem.

Sachko is a ball machine, who offers plenty of pace and consistency and hit 50 winners in the match. And Draxl was in big trouble after a strong start. He was up a set and 4-2 before Sachko came back to take the second set 7-5.

The Ukrainian was up an early break in the decider, then 4-1 in and up 0-30 on Draxl’s serve before the Canadian came back to hold. And 5-2, as well.

Sachko served for it at 5-3 and had a match point before Draxl broke him. And when they went on to the match tiebreak, Draxl won the last four points from being down 6-7 to take it.

It took three hours, 10 minutes, and finished pretty late.

Final round: the steady Mackenzie McDonald

It wasn’t an easy turnaround for Draxl, who faced the experienced and very steady Mackenzie McDonald in the final round Thursday afternoon.

“I finished late (Wednesday) night and I was pretty much running side to side for three hours while the guy was stepping in and hitting the ball so big. It was insane, and it kind of showed in the first set (Thursday),” Draxl said. “My arm was a little sore, and I just wasn’t feeling the ball well or finding my game.”

It was the Canadian’s third match in three days. And he quickly got himself in trouble again.

Canucks This Week – Week ending Jan 18, 2026 (Thursday results)

Up a set, McDonald broke Draxl to go up 5-3 in the second and serve for the match – and the main draw.

But again, Draxl broke at just the right time. And, after a 40-love lead nearly went to waste, held for 5-5 and then prevailed in the tiebreak.

The third set was all Draxl energy; he broke McDonald three times and knocked a major (pardon the pun) item off his bucket list with a 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2 victory.

“It means everything, you know? This is just my dream come true,” he said.

Version upgrade for 2026

The 2026 version of Draxl includes a lot of little upgrades.

The serve has beefed up a bit; Draxl got over the 200 km/h mark on several occasions.

“I’m trying to add some offence to my game. The defence is always kind of been there and the grind and stuff. But just adding some bigger serves, some free points, trying to get to the net when I can or trying to step in and make the guy run and dictate the points myself,” he said. “I think adding just those little bits of offence is going to change things for the better.”

In Dzumhur, Draxl will face a smaller opponent, one nearly a decade older with three career titles and ranked about 80 spots higher. But also a player with more of a defensive character, using his speed to win points.

A player not dissimilar to McDonald, although with a bit less of a flat trajectory on his ball.

Still, it could have been anyone – Sinner, Alcaraz, even Djokovic. Or one of his Davis Cup teammates – Auger-Aliassime, Shapovalov or Diallo.

So it’s not a bad outcome for a major debut.