For someone coming from a country considered among the poorest in Europe and with no tennis infrastructure to speak of, Radu Albot has done remarkably well.
The 32-year-old from Chisinau reached a career-high No. 39 in world rankings in 2019 before a right shoulder injury followed by the pandemic threw the spanner in his works.
The right-handed Albot has shown glimpses of his old form this season, fighting his way into the Australian Open main draw as a qualifier and reaching the third round where he lost to Alexander Zverev.
And he managed his game pretty well, transitioning from the warm conditions of Melbourne to the dry winters of Pune, to edge past Italian Federico Gaio 6-2, 7-6 (3) in the opening round of the Tata Open Maharashtra here on Monday.
"It is a lot of challenges," said Albot after his win, referring to his being the lone flag-bearer of Moldova on the ATP Tour.
"Ours is a small, poor country with almost no infrastructure in terms of tennis. There is no help from anyone. All the financial support I had was from my parents. It is a very rough start to the career I had.
"The second-best player is ranked in the 600s, so the gap is big. The guys are not young anymore. They start and quit.
"I would just say that if you want to play tennis and if you are from Moldova, it is a very big challenge and you will fail it."
But that did not stop him from reaching the highest level of the sport.
In the 2019 season, he claimed his first ATP title in Delray Beach, beating Briton Dan Evans, and broke into the top-50. This was after his wins over the likes of Marin Cilic and Pablo Carreno Busta the previous year.
It should not have come as a surprise, given that he had beaten the likes of Grigor Dimitrov and Milos Raonic in his junior days, when he was ranked No. 11.
"Basically, I was in the top league," Albot, nicknamed 'Machine', said of his form three years ago.
"I was playing all the Masters and Grand Slams. That is where you want to be as a tennis player, competing and beating the top players. Otherwise, you are stuck in the Challengers and drop points.
"So, it is important to be there at the top and stay there."
The following season turned out to be a frustrating one. He got injured in the pre-season and aggravated at the ATP Cup, resulting in withdrawals from the Auckland ATP event and the Australian Open.
And just when he thought he had recovered, the pandemic brought the game to a halt world over.
"I think that is where my form dropped. When I was fit and ready to play, there were no tournaments. Then when everything started, physically I was good but the confidence and the game was simply not there," he said.
But he showed glimpses of his old form, as in his win over Denis Shapovalov in late 2020, and he will take heart from his run at Melbourne Park.
"I had a good run of winning five matches at the Australian Open and am happy that I started here with a good win, because it is not easy to play a smaller tournament after a big one," he said.
"It is important to be injury free, and that will be one of the goals for me this season. "
He had lost to Zverev earlier as well, in the 2019 US Open, and he had only admiration for the German.
"He has a big serve and hits the good spots, which gives him aces and free points. It is not easy to manage that (as an opponent). He is also very consistent from the back and presses you to the back of the baseline," Albot said.
"Compared to others, he moves well for his height, he uses his strengths very well on the court and that's why he is No. 3."
