Dominic Thiem was four months shy of his 19th birthday when he won his first professional singles title at a $10k ITF tournament in Czech Republic back in 2012.

Over the next eight years, that early career milestone evolved into a haul of 17 ATP singles titles, victory at the US Open and a career-high ranking of No. 3 in the world, so it is easy to see why talented young Austrian Lukas Neumayer is looking to his better-known countryman for inspiration.

This month, Neumayer – a 19-year-old from Salzburg – won his first professional singles title at M15 Antalya (matching Thiem in winning his maiden ITF title as a teenager) before leaping 100 places in the ATP rankings to a career-high No. 565. So does Neumayer look to Thiem as an example of what could be possible for him in the future?

“Yes, of course,” said Neumayer this week from another ITF M15 tournament in Monastir. “[I’m inspired by] what he did for the sport in our country. I love watching his game. His big forehand. Because my game is a little bit like this.

“I got into tennis because of my family - everyone played and I watched it on TV - but then Dominic came along. He was a big part of [the growth of] tennis in Austria, [his success] was really good for our sport. Now we hope that we can have another player in the Top 50 or the Top 10. Let’s see…”

Neumayer is setting himself up for success in a similar way, albeit acknowledging that there is a long, arduous road ahead in a sport where thousands of others are pursuing similar ambitions. Though he still travels with childhood coach Gerald Kamitz, when back in Austria Neumayer works with Guenter Bresnik, a globally-renowned coach who moulded Thiem from the age of eight through to 2019.

“I think I improved my game a lot when I started to practice with Guenter,” admitted Neumayer. “He practiced with Thiem for many years and he’s a really good coach. I like that when I’m at home I can practice with him and other good players in Vienna. It’s good also to be with Gerald at tournaments because I’ve known him for so many years. He’s like a father for me.”

Celebrated for being an astute technical coach, Bresnik has worked with a host of Top 100 players, including current world No. 25 Gael Monfils, and relationships like those have benefitted Neumayer’s development through access to top professionals.

“I did a pre-season last year with Monfils in Tenerife and [David] Goffin was also there, so I could practice nearly every day with those good players,” he said. “I think when you practice with them you can really improve your game.”

Neumayer, who admits it was “a tricky decision” to chose tennis over golf in his early teenage years after ranking among the Top 10 in Austria for both sports, is currently the 10th highest-ranked Austrian in the ATP rankings - and the youngest Austrian in the Top 1000. He is eyeing a quick transition to the next level of the sport in the months ahead.

“If I can play Challengers then you can go to around Top 200 really fast if you play good tournaments,” he said. “My goal for this season is to get to around 300 and then be able to play Challengers all the year and no more Futures[*]. That would be good.”

The ITF player pathway is designed to progress the most talented players through the system toward the top of the game as quickly as possible, and Neumayer acknowledges that the opportunities he has had as a young player have provided a crucial leg-up in his early tennis development.

A former junior world No. 27, Neumayer won 78 of his 134 junior matches on the ITF World Tennis Tour and competed in two junior Grand Slam tournaments in 2020, reaching the second round in the boys’ singles events at the Australian Open and the quarter-finals on his favoured clay at Roland Garros.

He launched his professional career at probably the toughest time imaginable, playing his first men’s tournament in Monastir in March 2020 just as the Covid-19 pandemic struck.

“It was really difficult. There were just so many less tournaments," Neumayer reflected, but he proved resilient enough to get his head down and try again, albeit on a fairly light schedule when the Tour resumed six months later.

A particular benefit was his use of a junior reserved place (which allows Top 100 juniors to gain entry to tournaments that would otherwise have proved unobtainable by their ranking) - an entry method that he used to compete in 12 of the first 23 men’s tournaments he contested on the ITF World Tennis Tour.

“[That] helped a lot,” said Neumayer of the scheme, and the other opportunities afforded to him through his time contesting ITF junior tournaments. “The fact that I could get some wild cards for being in the junior Top 100 to help with the first Futures[*] year helped me a lot to get my first points really quick.

“It was also good that I could play two slams and it was really nice to get to know how it works at big tournaments like this.

“I think also that the level in the last junior year was really good. There were some really good junior players, so my junior career was really important for my next step.”

[*'ITF Futures' was the former name for tournaments on the ITF World Tennis Tour]