Australia's Aleksandar Vukic reckons playing five matches in five days is perfect preparation for his home major.
Vukic was knocked out of the Adelaide International with a quarter-final loss to American second-seed Tommy Paul on Thursday.
The 29-year-old, who earnt a berth in the tournament via qualifying, fell flat in his fifth match in as many days as Paul breezed to a 6-3 6-2 victory.
This stage suits him 🤩@TommyPaul1 takes out Vukic 6-3 6-2 in 62 minutes to reach the @AdelaideTennis semi-finals for a third time.#AdelaideTennis pic.twitter.com/Mmci8o6XTi
— ATP Tour (@atptour) January 15, 2026
But Vukic was grateful for his sapping schedule in Adelaide ahead of the Australian Open starting Sunday in Melbourne.
"It was my fifth match in five days to start the season; definitely to play that now, it's setting me up for the coming tournaments, especially the AO," Vukic told AAP.
"Five matches in five days is actually not normal, usually you get a day or two in between.
"So it will put me in good stead for AO - and having played some good tennis as well."
Vukic said the match play was far preferable to spending endless hours on the practice courts before the Open.
"You would be losing your mind - well, I know I would be," he said if he had been forced to train instead of play.
"You want to play ... it's good to get quality matches as well, so I'm happy.
"Winning four matches at this level, even though it was through qualies, if I could do that every week I will have a pretty good year."
American Paul advanced to his third semi-final in Adelaide, and will meet Tomas Machac.
The eighth-seeded Czech sealed his semis slot with a 6-4 6-4 victory against Spain's Jaume Munar.
Frenchman Ugo Humbert also advanced to the semi-finals, notching a resounding 6-0 6-3 win against Kazakh qualifier Alexander Shevchenko.
Humbert will play top-seed Alejandro Davidovich, who logged a quarter-final win over Monaco's Valentin Vacherot, 7-6 (7-4) 6-2.
