Boyer's brilliant rise, wildfires back home & importance of family

The deadly Los Angeles-area wildfires have been life-changing for many families, causing deaths, destroying homes and forcing many to evacuate. The fires have hit close to home for those at the Australian Open from California, including Tristan Boyer.

The former Stanford University student-athlete is enjoying the best moment of his career. Less than two years after not having a PIF ATP Ranking, the American has qualified for his first major main draw at the Australian Open.

Although his mother, Shari, and grandfather, William, are with him in Melbourne, his father, Chris had to evacuate their home.

“He was super happy for me, so I called him [after I qualified] and he was just really excited,” Boyer told ATPTour.com. “I think it'll probably hit me when I go home and the neighbourhood's gone, basically. I think that's going to be really tough. I've just seen it through pictures so far.

“Our house is okay and he's safe. We have neighbours and family friends I really feel for who lost their home, so that's tough to hear for sure.”

The Boyer family lives in Altadena. Chris relocated to a friend’s in Pasadena, less than five miles away. Tristan was not fully aware of how close the fire was to his home until after he qualified for the main draw with a straight-sets win against Christopher Eubanks.

“Thank God that our house and my family are all safe. My mom's here with me, my brother's out of town, he's at school, so everyone's safe. That was huge,” Boyer said. “They didn't even mention it to me… I obviously read about it a little bit, but they were like, ‘It's really close to our house, dad had to evacuate’. I was able to focus, but it definitely is very scary. I really hope that people are physically safe, and that they're able to be physically okay. That's most important. If we lose our house, it's devastating. But we're all still alive, so that's good.”

It has helped having family in Melbourne with his mother and grandfather, who is 77. William has traveled plenty throughout his life, but he had never been to Australia.

“Seeing my family is my favourite thing ever. Obviously, we do it so little as tennis players. My mom, my grandpa are here, which is awesome. My grandpa was like, ‘I've never been to Australia, I want to come’. So I was like, ‘Come out’. I'm 3-0 with my grandpa at Grand Slams, which is great,” Boyer said. “He's in great shape, so he's doing great. He's loving it.”

Boyer will try to continue putting on a show for him at the season’s first major. The Californian has worked his whole life to put himself in the position to compete at a venue like Melbourne Park with the whole world watching.

When Boyer was an adolescent, he would wait with a tennis racquet in hand for his parents to return home from work. As soon as they opened the door, he would ask to go hit a ball around.

“It was on the wall of my house. I just loved it. It was a mini racquet on a foam ball, or they'd give me a balloon or something to hit around,” Boyer said. “I love tennis. That's why I'm here. I have the opportunity to get a Stanford degree, or just to live a normal life, basically, and if I didn't really love playing, I wouldn't be doing that. It's not for the money, or for any other reason. I just love tennis.”

There was no wiping the smile off Boyer’s face as he discussed the different styles players use on court and how much he enjoys analysing them. If it involves tennis, Boyer loves it.

That is why the end of his college career at Stanford in March 2022 and the beginning of his professional career proved so difficult. Boyer moved to Argentina where he completed a training block until the beginning of May. As the American ramped up into competition, his foot hurt. Boyer took an MRI and learned he had suffered a bone edema in his fifth metatarsal, which kept him out for eight months.

“It wasn't really that painful… The doctor was basically like, ‘You have to be really careful with this, because if it fractures, you have to get it operated, because it's such a difficult place in terms of blood flow and recovery that if it fractures, you have to get a screw put in’,” Boyer said. “I just really wanted to avoid that. I probably went to get an MRI every month, maybe even every couple weeks, just to see how it was going. They would come back and they'd say it's still damaged, so you need to just basically do nothing.”

Since returning to action in February 2023, Boyer has been one of the quickest risers on the ATP Tour. In less than two years the former college standout has surged from unranked to No. 122 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings entering his first-round Australian Open clash against Federico Coria.

From competing in an ITF World Tennis Tour 15K event in his first tournament back to reaching an ATP Challenger Tour final as a qualifier two months later, Boyer wasted no time finding success.

“I did way better than I thought I was going to do pretty quickly, just because I had never had any experience playing good players,” Boyer said. “I just didn't know what I could do at all. When I finaled Savannah, first Challenger final, and I played through qualies, every match, every win gave me a little more confidence.”

He also made sure to point out the impact of his team, led by Alejandro Fabbri, who has worked with the likes of Diego Schwartzman. It is not often Americans finish their season on South American clay, but Boyer won titles in Brazil and Uruguay in the final two months of 2024.

That helped him tie Kevin Kim’s record for most Challenger match wins in a season by an American (44) in 2024. Boyer is high on confidence, in a major main draw for the first time and raring to go with his family’s full support behind him.

“It's been a fun road. I've really enjoyed playing. It feels really, really good to be here. I just had an awesome preseason with the team. It's been going great,” Boyer said. “I just feel like I've made a lot of really good decisions in terms of who I'm working with, and how I've been training, and so that's paying off.”