Sam Groth had a breakout year in 2015 and hopes that he can take a leap further into the top echelon of the ATP this year.

The Australian made his first Grand Slam third round at the Australian Open, then following that up with another round of 32 berth at Wimbledon where he was able to take a set off eventual runner up, Roger Federer. Groth also won two Challenger titles in Taipei and Manchester, along with his Davis Cup heroics to help Australia reach the World Group semi finals for the first time since 2006.

He was also the recipient of the Newcombe Medal, the Tennis Australia award for the best and fairest Australian player throughout the calendar year. Groth joined the likes of Lleyton Hewitt, Samantha Stosur and Nick Kyrgios as winners of the coveted award.

The big server raised his level of competitiveness and was able to test top players, “Last year I started to beat guys in the top 20. For the first time in my career I started to push the better guys.”

“Things like that give me a lot of confidence that I can mix it with those top guys and I really think that I can push towards the top 30.”

The 28-year-old had to cut his season short in order to have foot surgery, removing a problematic nerve in between his toes.

His lack of match practice showed in his first match of 2016, where he suffered a straight sets loss in the first round of the Brisbane International to Korean young gun Hyeon Chung. The Australian was missing routine volleys and ground strokes, which caused him to become unfocused with the task at hand.

If Groth is able to improve his mental game and ability to grind in rallies, he will be able to achieve his goal of reaching the top 30.

His work ethic is certainly one of the best on tour, his incredible story has established that he will stop at nothing to improve his game and his ranking in order to create success on tour.

“I'm not the most talented guy running around the tennis court on the ATP tour but I work hard and I understand my game now,” Groth said. “I've got some big weapons obviously with my serve and I've learnt how to use them over the past few years. It's no point having these weapons or the physicality if you don't know how to use it properly and I think over the last few years I've put the work in to be able to do that.”

2016 will be an interesting prospect for Groth, he barely has any points to defend in the early part of the season, along with the European clay court and Asian swings throughout the year. If he can achieve some results in those periods, the big serving Australian will rise and rise quickly.

Will Groth be able to reach his goal of entrenching himself inside the world’s top 30?