After six knee operations, years of self-doubt, three qualifying wins and an undisclosed amount of celebratory drinks, former Wimbledon junior top seed Jason Kubler returns to The All England Club on Monday for his long-awaited main-draw debut.
"I just want to walk around all the courts and see what it's like because the last time I was here for juniors was like eight years ago," the Australian said ahead of a winnable first-round date with Argentine Guido Pella.
"I'm not really familiar with all the courts and things like that. Once I've sussed everything out, I'll go 'right, I'm ready, this is it'."
The 25-year-old savoured his epic final-round qualifying triumph over Canadian journeyman Peter Polansky as one of the most memorable of his stop-start career, which, to be fair, has been more stop than start.
"I went to bed pretty easily. I had a few celebratory drinks. It's not every day you're going to qualify for Wimbledon," Kubler said.
"Playing Pella on Monday is going to be a great experience."
An experience the former teenage prodigy often thought he'd never get. It's been nine years since he was the world No.1 junior and favourite for the 2009 Wimbledon boys' title after joining Rafael Nadal as only the second player to go through the World Youth Cup and Junior Davis Cup undefeated.
He often contemplated giving the game away during the dark days.
"I've had a few car drives where I've just been driving on my own and thinking 'Is this all really worth it?'" Kubler said.
"Especially when you're injured and you're going through the rehab and you don't think it's really working and you're still getting the same pain you had before the surgery.
"Like eight months after it, you go 'Maybe I'm going to always have this pain, I've got to figure out something else to do.'
"That crossed my mind four or five serious times and then even when I started to coach for a couple of months, I thought 'Maybe this is what I'm going to have to do to make money from now on.'
"Seriously, there were a few times when I seriously thought 'This is it', but luckily I kept going."
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