{"id":359185,"date":"2024-01-11T10:25:29","date_gmt":"2024-01-11T11:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=359185"},"modified":"2024-01-11T12:02:14","modified_gmt":"2024-01-11T12:02:14","slug":"aussie-cult-hero-reflects-on-career-highs-after-sad-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=359185","title":{"rendered":"Aussie cult hero reflects on career 'highs' after sad loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

An emotional John Millman's<\/a> time on the tennis court is officially over after the home grown talent was knocked out of the Australian Open<\/a> qualifiers on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Choking back tears after he went down in straight sets \ufeffat the hands of Alex Molcan 6-4, 6-3\ufeff, Millman lowered the curtain on his 18-year singles career<\/a> full of gratitude.<\/p>\n

Millman did not get the chance to receive a proper farewell in front of the Melbourne crowd, but the 34-year-old said he didn't mind.\ufeff<\/p>\n

READ MORE\ufeff:<\/strong> Demon draws former world No.3 for Aus Open start<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Why the 'sky's the limit' for de Minaur<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Chappell urges selectors to have Smith selection 'conversation'<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

"It might not seem like much to bow out in qualifying, but it means a lot," Millman said.<\/p>\n

"I was never the biggest guy or the biggest hitter. I needed every bit of energy and they (supporters) came in their droves always, even in qualifying.<\/p>\n

\"MELBOURNE,<\/p>\n

"I had a lot of people who didn't think I'd eventuate to much, I stuck at it.<\/p>\n

"The ones who did think I would are probably all over there (in the player box)."<\/p>\n

Despite a plethora of injuries headlined by shoulder problems\ufeff throughout his career, Millman recounted his most famous victory over tennis legend Roger Federer at the 2018 US Open.<\/p>\n

Millman was the first Australian to defeat the 20-time grand slam champion since Pat Rafter in 1999.<\/p>\n

"I would have loved to reverse it and actually beaten him (Federer) here at the Australian Open when I lost in five," Millman said.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

He was beloved for his gritty determination that saw multiple contests pushed out to five-set thrillers.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"I just wasn't good enough in straights, to be honest with you," he joked.<\/p>\n

"It probably just summarised my career … I wasn't good enough to win it easy, I always had to leave it out there.<\/p>\n

"Hopefully I represented that each time I came on court, I think the Aussies got behind me because I was a bit of a battler."<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/AustralianOpen\/status\/1745357366835704212<\/a><\/p>\n

The retiree said representing his country at the Davids Cup and Olympic Games were some of the proudest moments of his career.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"There's been plenty of highs. That's (the Federer win) probably not the highlight of my career," Millman said.<\/p>\n

"Any time I could dress up in the green and gold in the Davis Cup in particular and Olympic Games, those are the moments that I really enjoyed, and they're the ones that will probably stick with me."<\/p>\n

Millman's total career prize money was $US5.47 million ($8.15 million), according to the official ATP website.<\/p>\n

His highest ranking was No.38 in the world, in 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An emotional John Millman's time on the tennis court is officially over after the home grown talent was knocked out of the Australian Open qualifiers […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":359187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359185"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=359185"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":359190,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359185\/revisions\/359190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/359187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=359185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=359185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=359185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}