The 19-year-old has been across the world this year as he looks to continue his remarkable rise up the world rankings.

He ticked off the United States to open the year before spending five weeks in Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Before long he was back in America for five weeks playing around Illinois.

His most recent plane trip landed him in the nation's capital, where Melbourne-based Polmans has advanced through to the quarter-finals of the Canberra International.

Just three more wins would cap off a whirlwind year for the South African-born youngster.

"It's gone in the direction that I've wanted it to," Polmans said.

"I'm just going to keep trying to stay as aggressive as I can and keep trying to come forward to the net, which has seemed to be working pretty successfully over the last few tournaments.

"It's been a good year for me so far. Next year I'll try to focus on playing more of these sort of tournaments, more challengers."

Polmans believes testing himself against the best players he can find will show him where he is at and what he needs to improve on – and that could mean a whole lot more travel.

But that isn't a worry with Polmans intent on going deep in every tournament he plays in to ease the financial pressure of trying to achieve stardom in professional tennis.

"It makes a big difference with the prize money," Polmans said.

"These days most of the tournaments are healthier if you go in deep but if you're not going too deep into tournaments I guess you're not making much of an earning.

"Tennis Australia help me out with funding when I go overseas and things like that but they only pay half of my accommodation and things like that, so my parents pay the other half – it definitely makes it tough."