Alex Bogdanovic
| File:AlexBogdanovicafterR1winMons61003.jpg | |
| Country (sports) |  United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Residence | London, England, UK |
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (183 cm) |
| Turned pro | 2002 |
| Retired | Active |
| Plays | Left-handed |
| Prize money | $320,033 (USD) |
| Singles | |
| Career record | 7 - 19 |
| Career titles | 0 |
| Highest ranking | 110 (June 18, 2007) |
| Grand Slam singles results | |
| Australian Open | - |
| French Open | - |
| Wimbledon | 1st (2002-2006) |
| US Open | 1st (2004) |
| Doubles | |
| Career record | 0 - 2 |
| Career titles | 0 |
| Highest ranking | 622 (April 9, 2007) |
| Last updated on: June 15, 2007. | |
Aleksa (Alex) Bogdanovic (Serbian Cyrillic: Aлeкca Бoгдaнoвић) (born May 22, 1984) is an British tennis player born in Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia. Alex moved to Britain when he was 7 and took up tennis as a means of making new friends.
Early career
Juniors
He had a lot of success in juniors for Great Britain, reaching a high of no 8, winning the Uruguay Bowl in Montevideo and reaching the semi-final of the US Junior Open in United States in 2001, the first British player ever to do so.
Early senior career in Britain
He finished runner-up in the U18 national championships in 2001 to Richard Bloomfield and also finished runner-up in the senior national championships that autumn beating top 100 player Martin Lee and British no 4 Arvind Parmar before losing in the final to Lee Childs in straight sets. In 2002, he was given a wildcard for Wimbledon, being the youngest man in the draw, however he lost in the first round. His first senior title was won this year, the Futures tournament in Nottingham. That autumn he won the senior national championships, beating Martin Lee again and defeating Jamie Delgado 7-5, 6-2 in the final.
Davis Cup Debut
Bogdanovic made his debut in the Davis Cup for Great Britain in 2003 against Australia, losing to Lleyton Hewitt and beating Todd Woodbridge in a dead-rubber to prevent a whitewash.
LTA Controversy
In April 2004, the Lawn Tennis Association withdrew the bulk of their funding to him because of a perceived lack of commitment. At the Sarejevo challenger, Bogdanovic was forced to withdraw from his quarter-final match with food poisoning. The next day the LTA insisted that he travelled to Greece to play a futures. Bogdanovic was bed-ridden with a fever and so said that he couldn't and because of that reason the LTA cut his funding. Bogdanovic however responded by employing new coach Mike Raphael and within 3 months reached the final of two Challenger events (Nottingham and Manchester, winning in Manchester) and qualifying for the US Open, his first non-Wimbledon Grand Slam tournament, losing in the first round in five sets.
2005 and early 2006 Challenger Success
His career began to take off again in August 2005, when he won the Nottingham and Sunderland Challenger events. This he followed with successive victories in his first two tournaments of 2006, the Challengers at Wrexham and Bergamo. He beat world number 51 Andreas Seppi en route to his Bergamo title. Coupled with quarterfinal appearances in Valencia, Cardiff and Lanzarote he brought his own ranking to a career high of 134. Bogdanovic took a break after Lanzarote because of a leg injury.
2006 Activity
Roland Garros Qualifying
Alex returned for the Roland Garros Qualifiers and went out in the 2nd Qualifying round to Argentine, Marcelo Charpentier. Where he lost in 3 sets 7-5 4-6 5-7.
Grass Court Season (Surbiton, Queen's, Nottingham and Wimbledon)
The 2006 Grass court season was disappointing, seeing Bogdanovic going out in first rounds of the Surbiton Challenger, Queen's Club, Nottingham ATP tournaments as well as at Wimbledon. He drew strong opponents in all three ATP events. At Queens he took World number 33 Dmitry Tursunov to a tie- break, at Nottingham he took a set off world 52 Max Mirnyi and at Wimbledon he made a credible showing against world number 2 Rafael Nadal, having received Wild Card entry into all three.
Newport, United States
For the first time in his career, his ranking was high enough for him to be granted regular entry (i.e. without having to qualify) into the Tennis Hall of Fame Championships in Newport, Rhode Island the week after Wimbledon, which his compatriot Greg Rusedski had won the previous two years. However, his automatic entry was partly due to the weak field at the event. (Many players take a mid-season break in the weeks after Wimbledon and few want to travel back across the Atlantic when alternative events are available in mainland Europe, in addition to which grass court tennis is increasingly unpopular amongst professionals.)
Bogdanovic was drawn to play against American world 735 in the 1st round, Jesse Levine. He won this match 6-4 7-5 in 1 hour 22 minutes, his first ATP tour victory of the season, and went on to beat George Bastl of Switzerland 6-1 7-6 (8-6), in the second round, to advance to the quarter finals of an ATP Tour for the first time in his career. He lost this match to the 6th seed from Austria, Jürgen Melzer having won the first set.
2007
Alex had a slow start to the season with his ranking dropping to 150. However his season picked up its pace when he was victorious in the Valencia challenger raising his ranking to 132. He followed this up with another consecutive challenger final in Cardiff, but failed to beat Frederic Niemeyer in this encounter. As a result of reaching the final of the Cardiff challenger, as of 28th of May, Alex has reached his highest-ever ranking of 112.
Alex then had a poor clay court season with 2 first-round challanger exits and failing to qualify for the French Open main draw. After this came a 2nd-round defeat to fellow Brit Richard Bloomfield at Surbiton.
Near Future
Before Wimbledon, where he has been granted entry via a wildcard, Alex competed at Queen's on the main ATP tour and will be playing at Nottingham.
This year at Queen's he managed to gain an impressive victory over world number 42 Hyung-Taik Lee, and beat fellow British player Jamie Baker in the second round to play Andy Roddick. He put on a superb performance against Roddick having won the first set 6-4, and pushed Roddick to a close tie-break in the second set. During the tie-break he was two points from victory, but Roddick took advantage of the Hawk-eye system and a correctly challenged call put him 6-5 up in the tie-break before winning the second set to make it one set all. Roddick broke Alex's serve for the first time in the final set making the final result 4-6 7-6(7-5) 6-4. Bogdanovic's impressive run at Queen's meant he was likely to break into the top 100 for the first time in his career. After the match Roddick complimented Bogdanovic and claimed he was "lucky to get out of there." He eagerly backed the idea Alex should easily burst into the top 40 at least by the end of 2007.
After Wimbledon, Alex has to defend his points he achived by reaching the quarter final at Newport last year. This could severely alter his ranking.
External Links
Official website: http://www.alexbogdanovic.com