I don’t always start interviews with an apology, but this one feels merited.

Timofei Skatov has a day off, it’s his birthday – a milestone one at that – and, unfortunately for him, the now 21-year-old Kazakh is having to spend a portion of his special day chatting to me.

“It’s okay, it’s fine,” he says with a chuckle. “I have nothing to do today so it’s all good.”

The day itself might have been fairly uneventful – a dinner with friends later in the evening at his Valencia-base proving the highlight – but the month of January has felt like cause for celebration for the former junior world No. 1.

Skatov, a 5’9” right-hander who says he was “too small” to follow his father’s wishes and play football, qualified for a Grand Slam on his first attempt at this month’s Australian Open, beating Hugo Grenier, Dane Sweeny and Gastao Elias in straights sets to reach the main draw. He gave a good account of himself on his Grand Slam debut too, falling to world No. 117 Nobert Gombos 6-3 6-2 1-6 6-4.

His significant breakthrough on the court was then matched by the welcome news of financial support off it, with Skatov announced as one of the 44 players who will receive a Grand Slam Player Grant from the newly re-named Grand Slam Player Development Programme (formerly the Grand Slam Development Fund) in 2022.

Designed to help talented individuals succeed where finances might otherwise prove a prohibitive barrier, the programme removes some of the cost burden involved in travelling around the globe at short notice in the pursuit of a higher ranking and entry into the biggest tournaments. Skatov’s grant is a cool $25,000.

“The Kazakh Federation told me there was a possibility to get this grant,” he says. “I didn’t really think about it but I thought ‘if I get it, it’s really nice’ because the travelling now is really tough.

“In January-February you have to go to India or to South America from Europe and [there are] a lot of costs. You have to pay yourself also if you want to take your coach, so this money is a really good opportunity to travel and to play tournaments.”

Skatov is currently the world No. 253 and, while his ranking is set to rise after the Australian Open, he knows the importance of making every trip count. He’s also aware of how quickly things can change. This time last year, he lost in the first round of three consecutive M15 tournaments on the ITF World Tennis Tour – the lowest rung of men’s professional tennis.

“I was really disappointed in this,” he remembers. “In the first few months, I couldn’t find my game. Then (in May) I went to a tournament in Oeiras where I did my first semi-final in a Challenger. I didn’t think to go there. At the last hour I received an email saying I’d got in, so I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll go and play and see what happens’.

“Then I played a Challenger in Almaty, Kazakhstan. I got a wildcard, I got a good draw, made the final, got some points, and after that I was able to play Challengers.

“It doesn’t matter how your ranking looks, you always think, 'Why am I so low?' Even now, I will be like 230 after the Australian Open. I’m planning to go to India for Challengers and I’m not in the main draw. It’s crazy!”

Skatov might have been forgiven for thinking progress would come a little faster after he topped the ITF Junior world rankings in 2017. He was a US Open boys' semi-finalist that year and ranked ahead of the likes of Sebastian Korda and Emil Ruusuvuori – both of whom are now comfortably nestled inside the ATP Top 100. Reaching the top of the junior game is, of course, no guarantee of future success. For Skatov, it may have been a case of too much, too soon.

“From one side it was really nice to see all the Grand Slams, feel the atmosphere, see the big players, but from the other side it was a bit of a bad job for me when I got to No. 1,” he admits. “I put too much pressure on myself and it didn’t work well for me.

“I got some injuries, I didn’t play some tournaments. I was struggling for a year, then I tried to play some Futures. It was a long way to get back to the Grand Slams. Four years later, I finally came back to Australia. It was a good feeling to get back.”

Skatov, who was born in Kazakhstan but lived in Russia for most of his early life, has based himself in Valencia for much of the last four years with an experienced coach in Jose Altur, who guided the likes of David Ferrer, Igor Andreev and Taro Daniel.

There he has a wealth of quality hitting partners on his doorstep, and travelling from Spain to play tournaments elsewhere in Europe is far easier than a Kazakhstan commute. Even so, he’s keen to acknowledge the tremendous progress of the sport in his country.

“I’m from a really small city, Petropavl. It’s close to Russia – almost on the border – but it’s really small,” he says. “Growing up there wasn’t even a tennis centre to play tennis. Now they’ve made a big one. When I was 17 I got the opportunity to come back and represent Kazakhstan and it’s working really good – the federation are doing a really good job.

“Tennis in the country is unbelievable – in the last two years we made about 20 really big tennis centres with hard court indoor courts.”

There are now tennis centres in all regions of Kazakhstan, and with the facilities providing the platform, junior tennis is thriving. Last year, Kazakh players won a record 40 ITF junior tournaments across singles and doubles, and finished runner-up in a further 45 events.

At the top level, Kazakh players continue to make their presence felt, notably reaching the Davis Cup quarter-finals for a remarkable sixth time since 2011 at the end of the last year.

Now the Kazakh No. 4, behind Alexander Bublik, Dmitry Popko and Mikhail Kukuskin, Skatov has high hopes of breaking into that successful team in March when they travel to Norway for their Davis Cup Qualifier tie.

“I want to be part of the team,” he admits. “I don’t know if I will have an opportunity to play [in March]. First number is Bublik and I’m behind Kukushkin and Popko, who are a bit higher than me, so at the moment I don’t know, but I want to be part of the team, to play and make some success.”

Discover more about the Grand Slam Player Development Programme