Every time O’Connell thought he was ready to return to the court, the tendonitis would flare up.

When he decided to take a break from the grind of the Challenger Tour at the start of 2018, O’Connell had a choice between tennis coaching and working at the Quays Marina, cleaning boats alongside his brother.

So for six months, you could have found the now world No.121 polishing the pride and joy of many northern beaches residents.

“I decided to clean boats because I was so sick of being injured. The last thing I wanted to do was go onto a tennis court and teach tennis. I just didn’t want to be on a tennis court,” O’Connell told the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

“I had too many injuries. The last thing I wanted to do was get on a tennis court. I just decided to clean boats at the local marina, down near my house.

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“My brother had a job there so I just joined him and it was pretty relaxing, just being on the water and cleaning boats.

“Even though the pay wasn’t as good as it would be being a tennis coach, yeah, it was quite relaxing for a few months doing that while I got the body right again.”

When O’Connell returned, he wasn’t playing anything close to his best tennis. He spent the rest of 2018 playing in Challenger tournaments across Europe. His best finish was a pair of quarter-finals.

“I really struggled, to be honest, to get results and get back into the swing of things,” O’Connell said.

By the end of 2018, he had fallen outside the top 1000 in the world.

“It wasn’t until the following year that I started to make inroads and start to win a lot more matches and have good results and the ranking went up from there.”

The journey to last year’s US Open had begun. By the start of 2020, O’Connell had worked his way through the Challenger circuit and improved his world ranking 1060 spots to 117th in the world.

But when he arrived in New York City, O’Connell still did not have a single ATP Tour win to his name.

He ticked that box when he stunned Serbian Laslo Djere with a four-set win in the first round of the US Open.

‘Everyone was going through troubles and dealing with COVID. To be able to get back on tour, to get to the US Open and get a win - it was an unbelievable feeling.’

Chris O’Connell

“To get that on the board, it was a special feeling,” O’Connell said. “Especially after the year everyone in the world had last year. Not just me, everyone in the world.

“Everyone was going through troubles and dealing with COVID. To be able to get back on tour, to get to the US Open and get a win - it was an unbelievable feeling.”

After beating Djere, O’Connell faced a player many believe to be the heir apparent to Novak Djokovic’s crown as the world’s best player - Daniil Medvedev.

“Coming up against Daniil Medvedev [in the second round] was a good experience. He was just too good,” he said.

“Those guys are up there for a reason. They’re in the top 10 for a reason. They’re so clinical. They find a way to win those points, to play the right shot at the right time but I felt comfortable out there, during the match.”

Now his first ATP Tour win is in the bank - and cleaning boats is a distant memory - O’Connell has set his sights on two targets this year.

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First up, a first round win at the Australian Open. After that, attention will turn to cracking the top 100.

“I definitely appreciate [being on tour] a lot more,” the 26-year-old said.

“I would much rather be grinding away somewhere in eastern Europe or playing Challengers than cleaning boats or working in retail or on the court coaching.

“It makes me appreciate those sort of moments a lot more and I think that helped me to progress up the rankings quite quickly in 2019.

“To break that top 100 would be awesome. It’s a pinnacle thing to get that top 100. You’re a direct entry into the grand slams from there. We’ll see what happens in the next couple of weeks.”