Thoughts of reneging on retirement are nothing new for professional sportsmen. For Australian journeyman Peter Luczak, the thought of continuing on was only fleeting and not altogether serious following a pair of men’s doubles matches with good mate Lleyton Hewitt at their home Grand Slam event.
A Davis Cup player and Commonwealth Games gold medallist, 32-year-old Luczak last week played his final match on tour after he and Hewitt bowed out to the top-seeded Bryan brothers.
It was the boisterous, Aussie party-like reception the pair received on a packed Show Court 3, which almost gave him second thoughts on hanging up the racquet.
“It’s great to go out in the way I did playing with a great mate like Lleyton and also playing against the Bryans, one of the best doubles teams, and the crowd was going off,” Luczack says.
“I listened to everything. The chants were classic. If it was like that every time I probably wouldn’t have stopped – the adrenaline, a lot of home support, but it’s not like that every week at the tournaments I play.
“A couple of times I’ve been lucky to make the third round of the Australian Open in singles and the crowd on Margaret Court [Arena] was similar, but with Lleyton it doesn’t matter where you play you’re going to get a big crowd.”
Luczak is quick to point out most of the fans were there to catch a glimpse of Aussie great Hewitt, but more than a few had lined up to give him a rousing send-off.
Not that he would ever admit as much.
The thing is, you would be hard-pressed to find a more humble and self-deprecating player on tour.
“I actually feel like I was one of the worst players in the top 100. I wasn’t very talented, I didn’t have a great game but I worked hard and achieved a lot for the sort of player I was,” Luczak says of his career.
Having battled his way through a marathon qualifying match against Dmitry Tursunov to make the Brisbane International main draw last year, Luczak’s immediate comment after the match was how his opponent’s best level of tennis was far superior to what he could produce and that he was simply lucky to have caught him on the comeback trail from injury. Only after adding that Tursunov was a “good bloke”, would he even begin to discuss his own game.
It’s the type of traits that characterise Luczak – one to give credit where credit is due and far more comfortable talking up those around him than giving himself a wrap.
Such traits went a long way to landing him the Spirit of Tennis Award two years ago at the Australian Tennis Awards.
“I think that’s sort of the Australian way,” Luczak says. “We don’t like building ourselves up too much, just the way we are, I guess.”
Despite individual victories over the likes of then world No.17 Fernando Gonzalez and a run to the semifinals of Costa do Sauipe, Brazil (2005), Luczak’s career highlights all involved the rare team moments in tennis and the chance to represent his country – at Davis Cup and the Commonwealth Games.
“I know the Commonwealth Games isn’t a big thing for a lot of people but winning gold in doubles for Australia with Paul Hanley, I really enjoyed that,” Luczak says. “Every Davis Cup tie too. One I played against [Novak] Djokovic in Serbia and I remember playing indoors with close to 15-20,000 people there. That was pretty intense.”
It is these team moments, playing in the green and gold, where he and Hewitt became such good mates. But even before Luczak had finally cracked the pro circuit, Hewitt had shown support for his countryman.
“Before we were good friends, I was ranked about 250 in the world, he was No.1 or 2 and he’d still come and support me in qualifying. I think it’s part of an old Aussie culture. He’s impossible to pick up a tab with, he’s very generous and loyal to his mates” Luczak says.
“Last year he invited me to go around the Bahamas for a holiday and we went around there with my family, the kids played along together, they got along great, we played a bit of golf and did some training, so yeah we get along great.”
It is this desire to spend more time with his wife Katarina and young children, Sebastian and Millie, that has driven his retirement and Luczak admits his motivation to play on tour has waned.
“I was starting to take a few shortcuts to spend more time with family so I wasn’t training as much as I was in the past. I knew if I kept that up I wasn’t getting back to the top 100 again,” he says.
“I don’t want to spend too much time away from them anymore. We’re in Sweden all this year and then in December this year we’ll move back to Australia. I’m pumped about that.”
As for his post-retirement plans, Luczak is already picking up invaluable coaching tips as a hitting partner for Hewitt and under the guidance of the great Tony Roche.
“I’m pretty lucky to be able to learn from Rochey. He’s one of the best,” Luczak says. “He’s coached so many blokes – [Ivan] Lendl, Roger [Federer] and he won a slam himself.
“Some of the weeks if I don’t work with Hewitt, if Rochey’s around then I’ll probably work with some of the up-and-coming Aussie guys, maybe like a [James] Duckworth or a [Jason] Kubler or a Benny Mitchell.”
So with the rigours of training now behind him, has Luczak had a chance to put the feet up and crack open a cold beer?
“To tell you the truth I haven’t,” he laughs. “I probably should but I’ll wait til Lleyton’s finished. I don’t want to be hungover the next day hitting with him, so I’ll wait til he’s all done as well. We’ll have a beer together.”
He will be hoping to hold off on that beer a little longer yet with Hewitt due to meet the tournament’s top seed Novak Djokovic on Monday night.
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