‘Aussie battler’ Jason Kubler surges into the third round at Wimbledon and ATP top 100 rankings

Jason Kubler is flying under the radar at Wimbledon, but there is hope the self-proclaimed ‘Aussie Battler’ can do serious damage on the lawns of Wimbledon after cruising through to the third round overnight.

The former junior No.1 tennis star was once dubbed the next Rafael Nadal until injuries wrecked his career and left him fighting for scraps at challenger events and qualifying tournaments.

A hereditary knee condition as resulted in six bouts of surgery, but the 29-year-old never gave up and is now enjoying his best run of form at a Grand Slam in his career – and a career-best payday.

He took just two minutes to blast past Austrian World No.85 Dennis Novak after bad weather forced the match to be postponed on Thursday.

The 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 means Kubler will now play American qualifier Jack Sock and have a real chance to advance to the final 32 players in the tournament.

With 18 wins in his last 20 outings, including being the last Aussie man standing at the French Open, he is in career-best form with his best tennis seemingly ahead of him.

Kubler had to win three qualification matches just to play at Wimbledon but has now cracked the world top 100 ranks for the first time.

Reaching the fourth round would mean a guaranteed $337,000, not bad considering it wasn’t so long ago that Jason Kubler was down to the last 14 cents in his bank account.

‘Fourteen cents – and I still owed people,’ Kubler told AAP after holding his nerve to serve his way into the last 32 of a grand slam for the first time.

So pumped was Kubler that, instead of celebrating, the 29-year-old made a beeline for the practice courts to blow off some steam.

‘Kind of a weird feeling when the match finished because you have so much energy to get ready for possibly another two more sets after that one,’ he said.

‘For it to finish in four points was, yeah, a good feeling, don’t get me wrong, but it was a weird feeling.’

The watershed win set up a meeting on Saturday with fellow qualifier Jack Sock after the one-time world No.8 completed his own rain-interrupted second-round victory over fellow American Maxime Cressy.

‘It’s not too bad,’ Kubler said, barely able to wipe the smile from his face.

The one-time world No.1 junior’s career has been cruelly stop-start due to six rounds of knee surgery, but Kubler says he isn’t one to look back.

‘I’m sort of the person that doesn’t think too much about the past, so maybe I could have got caught up with the things that have happened or maybe the opportunities I may have had,’ he said.

‘I’m sort of just thinking about now. Even thinking of the third round, obviously it’s a great moment, but it’s almost like I know after this tournament, regardless how I go, there is still a lot of work to do.

‘I’m only 98, 99, 100 in the rankings, obviously it’s a great moment, but I know after this I’m going to go back to working hard and hopefully improving the ranking.’

Improving his ranking rather than upgrading his car, like fellow Australian qualifier Zoe Hives planned on doing with her $89,000 Wimbledon pay-day.

‘I can’t get the car. I’d like to try and find somewhere to finally live. That would be cool,’ Kubler said.