John Millman

John H. Millman (born 14 June 1989) is an Australian former professional tennis player. He won one title on the ATP Tour, the 2020 Astana Open, reaching a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 33 in October 2018. His other career highlights included reaching the quarterfinals of the 2018 US Open (beating then-world No. 2 Roger Federer en route), reaching the finals of the 2019 Japan Open and 2018 Hungarian Open and winning twelve ATP Challenger Tour titles.

Millman represented Australia on numerous occasions, including in the Davis Cup and ATP Cup and at two Summer Olympics.

Millman retired from tennis after the 2024 Australian Open.

Personal life

Millman was born in Brisbane, Australia, into a family of five children (four girls) and he is the second youngest. During his schooling years he attended Brisbane Grammar School then the Anglican Church Grammar School . Outside tennis he enjoys soccer and supports Liverpool F.C. who compete in the English Premier League. In January 2019, Millman received the OLY post-nominal title at the Brisbane International tournament.

Millman is a longtime tennis commentator with Australian sports broadcasters.

Junior career

Millman made his ITF junior tournament debut in Darwin as a 15-year-old in 2004 and reached the quarterfinals. He made his junior Grand Slam debut at the 2006 Australian Open. He won his first junior tournament in June 2006 at a tournament held in New Caledonia. He then won his next two tournaments in a row held in Fiji and New Zealand respectively. He competed in his last junior tournament at the 2007 Australian Open.

Professional career

2008–12: First Future & Challenger titles, top 200

In 2008, Millman started to pursue professional tennis. He won the F8 Futures in Australia, was runner-up at an F1 in Romania losing to Răzvan Sabău and made the semis of a Morocco F5 tournament. In 2009, Millman's success on the junior circuit continued, making the final of an F2 in Bulgaria and claiming three semi-final appearances: two in Italy and one in Bulgaria. In the same year, Millman injured his back while training with the Australian junior Davis Cup team. Millman improved his career ranking from close to 1,000 to the 300s in 2009. He achieved this by a semi-final performance in a Challenger tournament in Burnie, Tasmania. He won his second Futures event in Kalgoorlie defeating Matthew Ebden and made the second round of qualifying at the Australian Open.

Millman started 2010 by winning a wildcard entry into his hometown tournament, the Brisbane International. Unfortunately, he was drawn to play defending champion Radek Štěpánek in the first round and lost in straight sets. Millman reached the final round of qualifying at the Australian Open qualifying losing to Ukrainian Illya Marchenko. He won his third Futures title in Berri on grass defeating Greg Jones in the final in February. In September, Millman returned to Australia to claim his fourth Futures title of his career in Darwin. In October, he won his first Challenger title in Sacramento by defeating Robert Kendrick.

Millman was again awarded a wildcard into the 2011 Brisbane International main draw where he lost to fellow Australian Matt Ebden. He then competed in Sydney and Australian Open qualifying but fell in the second round in both tournaments. He then competed in Challengers spread across Asia, Australia and Europe before injuring his shoulder during an Italian futures tournament in April. He continued playing injured until Wimbledon qualifying where he lost in the first round to Fritz Wolmarans. Following the loss at Wimbledon he returned to Australia and did not compete in a tennis tournament again until 2012.

At the beginning of 2012 Millman used his protected ranking to enter the Brisbane International qualifying tournament and managed to win three matches to qualify for the main draw, where he lost in the first round to Santiago Giraldo. He then travelled to Melbourne to compete in Australian Open qualifying but was ousted in the first round by Vasek Pospisil. After a year with mixed results on the Future and Challenger circuits, Millman won his first title in over two years in Bendigo where he defeated Ben Mitchell in the final. He finished 2012 with a ranking of World No. 199.

2013–15: Continued Challenger success, injuries and top 100

Millman began 2013 at the Brisbane International where he entered qualifying and recorded straight set wins over Luke Saville, Alex Bogomolov and Donald Young to make it into the main draw. He then recorded his first ever ATP win against Tatsuma Ito in the first round. Following that victory, he was awarded a main draw wildcard into the 2013 Australian Open. In the second round of Brisbane he faced World No. 3 Andy Murray and lost in three sets.

Following an impressive performance at the Brisbane International, an Australian writer/sports physiologist coined the term 'Millminions' to describe Millman's extensive and loyal fans base. This has since been adopted by the Australian tennis community.

Millman received a wildcard entry into the Apia International Sydney and defeated Tommy Robredo in the first round. He next took on the third seed, Andreas Seppi for a place in the quarterfinals. Millman impressed taking a set off the world No. 23, but eventually lost in three sets.

Millman then competed at the 2013 Australian Open as a wildcard, which was his debut in the main draw at his home slam. He played World No. 84 Tatsuma Ito in the first round. Millman had recently defeated Ito at the Brisbane International, but Ito got the better of Millman in an epic 5 set match 4–6, 4–6, 6–3, 6–0, 5–7. After the loss, Millman mentioned ambitions to make the top 100 by the end of the year.

Millman then played a $50,000 Challenger event at the 2013 McDonald's Burnie International. He defeated compatriot Benjamin Mitchell in the first round despite losing the first set. Although having a first round scare, he cruised through to the final where he faced Stéphane Robert. Millman won the match for his second Challenger title. Attempting to build on his early success in Challenger events in 2013, Millman took part in the $35,000 Shimadzu All Japan Indoor Tennis Championships in Kyoto, Japan. He defeated Marco Chiudinelli in the final to claim his second Challenger title of the year.

Millman was awarded a wild card into the French Open but on 20 May 2013, he announced his withdrawal due to a shoulder injury. Millman was replaced by countryman and rising star Nick Kyrgios who previously had a wildcard for qualification rounds.

Millman did not play a match since May 2013, but he announced via Twitter on 19 February 2014, that he hoped to be back playing by the end of March. It was later announced that his first competition in eleven months would be the Chengdu China F4, commencing on 7 April, where he made the quarter-final. His ranking as of June 2014 had fallen to 1193. In August 2014, Millman won the Korea F10 and F11. These were his first titles in 17 months. In September, Millman made the semi-final of the Sacramento Challenger, losing in three sets to world number 54 Sam Querrey. The following week, Millman made the final of the Tiburon Challenger, but again lost to Sam Querrey in two sets. He rose 241 ranking positions in these two weeks; up to 285. In November, Millman won his fourth career Challenger title at the Traralgon 2 against James Ward.

Millman commenced the 2015 season at the 2015 Brisbane International with a wild card into the main draw. He defeated Rhyne Williams in round one and almost caused an upset, leading world no. 2 Roger Federer in round two 6–4, 3–1 before losing 6–4, 4–6, 3–6. At the 2015 Australian Open, Millman received another wildcard and lost in the first round to Leonardo Mayer in straight sets.

In February 2015, Millman was forced to retire in round 1 of the Burnie Challenger with a lower back concern. He returned to complete in the Kyoto Challenger where he reached the final but lost 3–6, 6–3, 3–6 against Michał Przysiężny. Millman lost in round of qualifying at the French Open, then played Vicenza Challenger where he was seeded 6th and lost in the final to Íñigo Cervantes. In June, Millman secured his first Grand Slam main draw entry via qualifying for the first time in his career at Wimbledon. Millman defeated 19th seed Tommy Robredo in round 1, before losing to Marcos Baghdatis in round two, despite having a 2 sets to 0 lead. This result increased Millman's ranking and he reached the top 100 for the first time in July 2015. In August, Millman won his sixth and seventh Challenger titles in Kentucky and Aptos.

Millman ended 2015 with a ranking of World No. 92.

2016: Third round at Major and double-bagel Olympic record

Millman commenced 2016 making the second round of Chennai, before playing in Sydney after being awarded a wildcard. He lost in round one to Tommy Robredo.