Harry Bourchier claims maiden ITF title as his comeback from injury gathers steam

Nearly a decade after taking to the court as a 14-year-old in Burnie, Harry Bourchier has broken through for a maiden ITF title as he continues his climb back up the world rankings.

Harry Bourchier is looking to improve his world ranking after a frustrating few years with injuries.

NEARLY a decade after taking to the court as a 14-year-old in Burnie, Harry Bourchier has broken through for a maiden ITF title as he continues his climb back up the world rankings.

Bourchier, whose first appearance came in qualifying at the Burnie International in 2010, charged through the field at the Mornington Peninsula International #1 last weekend to snare a watershed victory.

Years of toiling away on the lower circuits have finally reaped the rewards for the 23-year-old, who has battled some serious injuries in the past few years which rocked his confidence.

HARRY ON THE COMEBACK TRAIL

But having been able to string together some consistent performances in recent months, the Tasmanian is producing some of the best tennis of his career as he closes in on a return to the top 400 players in the world.

“It is a bit of a relief off my shoulders, it’s been a long time coming but I couldn’t be happier with the week,” Bourchier said after clinching a 6-4, 6-4 win over Chris O’Connell.

“I started this year off pretty well at the challengers in Canberra and the two events in Tassie, going pretty deep in those, and then making quarters the last couple of weeks.

“The past year I’ve done a lot of training, spent like four hours on court each day throughout every week putting the volume in my body.

Harry Bourchier poses with his trophy.

“Now this is lifted off my shoulders hopefully now I know what to do and how it is, it should set me up for the tournaments coming up.”

Bourchier reached a career-high ranking of 396 at the end of January but is every chance of improving on that following his victory, which will see him climb from his current mark of 413 when the next cycle is released.

He will waste little time in backing up — another tournament in Mornington begins on Wednesday — before a likely trip to Asia.

“There is another tournament at the same place coming up this week starting Wednesday, after that I will train for a couple of weeks and then possibly head to China.”