MONTREAL – When you’re the International Tennis Federation’s junior champion, when you win two junior Grand Slam titles in a year and reach the final in the other two, it would be natural to assume the next steps up the professional ladder will follow, well, naturally.

And so, the difference between expectations and the brutally competitive reality of the ATP Tour has hit 20-year-old Filip Peliwo fairly hard.

But a ray of hope struck the Vancouver native, No. 265 in the ATP Tour’s latest singles rankings, in Casablanca on Monday when he qualified for the first Tour-level main draw of his young career.

Peliwo played the Rogers Cup last year in Montreal on a wild card. This one, he earned all on his own.

“It was a good match, I did what I had to do to win. Obviously the serving (42 per cent first serves) wasn’t as good as I would have liked it to be, but always room to improve tomorrow,” Peliwo told Eh Game via telephone from Casablanca after his 6-1, 6-4 victory over 31-year-old Romanian Victor Crivoi. “I think that this week might be the start of a bit of an upswing,” he added.

Peliwo will play 32-year-old Filippo Volandri of Italy, another hardened veteran, Monday.

The key match wasn’t on Monday, but in the second round of qualifying Sunday against unknown 22-year-old Spaniard Juan Lizariturry.

Peliwo was up 3-0 in the first set – but lost it 7-5. He was down 3-1 in the second set – and ran off five straight games. And he was down 0-3 in the third set – and won six of the next seven games to take the match.

Peliwo’s road is similar to that of many young players – more on the men’s side than the women’s side. They have a great final year in the juniors playing boys their own age – and sometimes not even the best in their age group, who are already focused on pro events.

Then, suddenly, they’re out there in the trenches at low-level Futures events against 30-year-old guys who are fighting every week for a $1,000 cheque they need to make it to the next week on the circuit and, sometimes, even to support a family.

They’re so much more physically mature, and often so much hungrier. These foot soldiers of tennis aren’t supported by their national federations. They don’t have all the fresh tennis kits and all the racquets they need, a coach supplied and paid for, travel arrangements made – in other words, nothing to really worry about except going out and trying to win a tennis match.

It is literally men against boys. And the relatively undersized Peliwo – officially 5-foot-11 and 154 pounds – has been feeling it.

The addition this year of experienced Spanish coach Galo Blanco, who saw countryman Milos Raonic through this transition phase right to the top of the men’s game, can only help.

But it’s a trying adjustment period.

“He’s not trying to change my identity as a player. We’re just trying to improve my weaknesses and improve my strengths,” Peliwo said. “The main thing we’re working on is just being more tactical about the game, reading the game better, not just going out and hitting shot by shot.

“Just to be more mindful of how I’m playing. And planning out the match a lot better,” he added.

Story continues