At an age when many tennis prodigies are contemplating the next phase of their lives, the big wins are stacking up for Aleks Vukic.

The former Normanhurst Boys High School student will head to his sixth Australian Open full of confidence after a four-match winning run at the Adelaide Open.

There he downed two-time grand slam finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas, adding to an impressive run in recent years that’s included an ATP final in Atlanta, a win over former world No.2 Casper Ruud and Australian Davis Cup honours.

It’s all come in his late 20s, in a brutal, global sport that frequently hand picks its best and brightest while barely in their teens.

For Vukic, 29, it has been much more of a slow burn, but he wouldn’t change it and values having gone to a school where he didn’t have to choose between sport and education.

“My dad saw the importance of having sport, my mum the academic side. I think it was a good combination,” he said.

“It was always a bit of a battle, but I ended up doing both at a pretty high level.”

He said an ATAR of around 92 was very modest compared to some of his school mates. Still, none of them would go on to crack the top 50 on the world tennis tour.

It was a journey that started when he was in primary school at Eastwood Public, but only really took off towards the end of his high school years when he won the Australian school championship title.

“But at that time the HSC came around,” he said.

“It was a balance. I really enjoyed school and hanging out with my mates. It was quite an academic school, so I got taken along with it.”

From there he went to college at the University of Illinois, studying finance and playing tennis.

While big name contemporaries such as Nick Kyrgios hogged the headlines, Vukic quietly went about his business on the secondary tennis circuit before his breakthrough 2023 season catapulted him to No.48 in the world.

He’s been a regular on the main tennis tour ever since.

Vukic said the journey had made him a more well-rounded person.

“Everyone is different,” he said. “If I was better when I was younger, maybe it would be different. But when you are young, really good and getting lots of support I understand how hard that would be to turn down.

“In my situation we discussed getting fulltime into tennis, but I never had the confidence to fully give up my studies. I really enjoyed in school and in university having a life outside of tennis. There was more to it than just the sport.

“Now I always find it interesting speaking to other people. People are maturing later. And with that education comes maturity. It helps massively. Talking to people around the tennis scene you can tell who has been through the education pathway or not.”

For now, his focus will continue to be on tennis.

Vukic has a winnable first round at the Australian Open against Tiago Agustin Tirante but may face Tommy Paul, the man who ended his run in Adelaide, in the second round.