DOLGOPOLOV’S COACH – JACK READER

Jack Reader spent the early years of his much-travelled life in Port Lincoln where it has erected a statue of Makybe Diva. Somehow appropriate now that, at this Australian Open, Reader has taken the role of the bush trainer with a once-in a-lifetime good thing.

That Reader's surprising stayer, Ukrainian Alex Dolgopolov, yesterday conquered the fourth seed Robin Soderling over five sets, is the consequence of an unlikely but increasingly successful coach-player alliance between two men who have spent the majority of their lives on the tennis tour.

Dolgopolov was a tennis brat who travelled from tournament to tournament with his father Oleksandr, the coach of an earlier Ukrainian star Andrei Medvedev. Little Alex is still remembered by some of Medvedev's contemporaries, such as yesterday's on-court interviewer Jim Courier, as the kid who would beg for a hit and seldom miss the baseline when he was handed a racquet.

Australian coach Jack Reader with Ukranian player Alexandr Dolgopolov. Photo: Wayne Taylor

Apart from a stint in the pub game in New Zealand and a job modelling in an ANZ bank commercial, most of Reader's professional life has been spent at the other end of the tennis spectrum in the game's bush leagues. The coach's well-worn, sun-stained face and habit of starting stories that he realises he probably should not end - at least not for publication - hint at a life lived large in years spent at college in the US, on modest satellite circuits and coaching in Italy and Germany. The nickname Jack The Stripper, recalled yesterday by a contemporary, might be another hint.

''I was a high-class bum, I suppose,'' says Reader. ''Tennis got me travelling. In Port Lincoln it would get me a trip to Adelaide or up the coast to Whyalla. After that it got me around the world. I can speak a few languages, had a good time.''

Reader did not win his first computer point until he was 28, earning a career-high singles ranking of 700 and a doubles rating of 300. But, even then, he knew his future was outside the lines. ''I would coach for three months just to get the money together to play one satellite tournament,'' he says.

 Twelve years ago, Reader found himself back in Adelaide where he raised a son as a single father, coached at the Warradale Park Tennis Club and worked with some top juniors. It was on a trip to Italy with a promising Adelaide player Yuri Bezeruk five years ago that Reader first saw Dolgopolov.

The then 17 year-old beat Bezeruk comprehensively and Reader immediately called an Italian agent he knew. ''I said this kid has got the biggest talent in the world,'' says Reader.

Then, two years ago, Reader got a phone call. Dolgopolov had struggled with other coaches since he and his father/coach had, in the Ukrainian's words, ''gotten a bit sick of each other'' and his agent wanted Reader to look after him. ''I thought 'You beauty','' says Reader. ''He lost second round of qualies and I gave him a big serve because I thought he was going back [to Europe]. That's how it started.''

In 2009, Reader coached Dolgopolov from afar using skype and emails, but since December he has travelled with him, overseeing the rising star as his ranking improved from 350 to - after the Australian Open - at least No .34. ''The biggest thing was getting him to get enjoy his tennis again,'' says Reader. ''He grew up on the circuit and I think he expected to be there.''

Yesterday, Dolgopolov looked far more relaxed than the brooding Soderling whose feared forehand buckled in the face of the Ukrainian's nagging game.

When you mention the ''bush trainer'' analogy, Reader smiles. ''People can say what they like … The best coaches are not always the best players. You've got a player with all the strokes and, somehow, you've got to make them come together.''

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