Alex's biography
Alex is originally from the Ukraine and started playing tennis there at the age of 8. His Dad took him to a squad one day, Alex admits that he didn't like tennis at first [he preferred swimming and gymnastics] but after playing for a few days he started improving very quickly and fell in love with the game.
At age 10 he moved to the UK with his parents to live in Middlesex. Alex started playing at the Globe
LTC where they were kind enough to give him free membership. He was
spotted by the county performance officer of Middlesex who invited him
to play for
the county team and he has competed for them at every age group.
Globe LTC allowed Alex a 1hr weekly private lesson with a coach until he was 14. That's all
the coaching he's received until now in the UK because he could never afford
it since then.
At 16, Alex underwent knee surgery for
a torn miniscus and other complications and this took him out of tennis
for over a year. He came back and had nowhere to train and no money,
Sutton tennis academy let him train and
live at the centre and gave him the opportunity to coach and hit
with some
youngsters to earn his scholarship. Alex got his chance.
Alex is now in the Sutton squad coached
by Nick Weal who helps him with his game. Alex says "The clay courts
are nice here, artificial clay though, carpet underneath with clay on
top."
2007 has been a breakthrough year for Alex, jumping over 400 places to the verge of the world's top 400, making 3 futures finals. In 2008, he aims to make that next jump onto the challenger circuit, the next tier of world tennis
Game Style
Alex says: " I play aggressively mainly from the baseline, I do try to mix it up with
coming to the net as well. I have a one-handed backhand and am pretty solid
from both sides. My ideal game style would have to be based on Federer and
thats how I aim to play one day."
