He's already winning over fans in Australia with his lion-sized heart and high-energy tennis and now teenage ace Alex de Minaur hopes to be a fan favourite at the US Open in New York.
Under Lleyton Hewitt's mentoring, de Minaur has soared from 214th this last year to 43rd in the rankings to be the second-youngest player in the world's top 50.
"It's been an incredible journey and I'm really proud of where I am right now," said the 19-year-old world No.45.
"But there's still a long way to go and I'm still pushing myself every day to get better and I'm looking forward to what's ahead."
And that's Japanese young gun Taro Daniel in a showdown between two of the game's fast-rising up-and-comers on Tuesday.
Proving highly capable himself, Daniel is one of the few players to have toppled the resurgent Novak Djokovic on a hard court this season.
"A very tough competitor, very solid and it's going to be a battle, but I'm just looking forward getting out there, competing and leaving it all out there, de Minaur said.
"Leaving it all out there" was one of Hewitt's pet lines during a 20-year professional career that yielded a US Open crown, as well as a second final appearance, three semi-finals and seven straight quarter-final showings from 2000 to 2006.
Spectators at Flushing Meadows, known as the most boisterous in the world, loved Hewitt's high-octane approach and now the former world No.1 is encouraging his protege to engage the New York crowd in the same way.
"Obvioiusly different players feed off different things," de Minaur said.
"The main thing Lleyton really told me was just to keep my energy going and that intensity and obviously that will bring crowd into it.
"And if you get fired up, you get that support from the crowd, which is always good. That would be something really nice to have here in New York.
"Growing up watching a lot of US Opens, something that's always been crazy has been the crowd. They're a very loud crowd and hopefully they're nice and loud, but on my side."
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