Evgeny Korolev

Evgeny Korolev
Евгений Королёв
Country (sports)	Kazakhstan; Russia
Residence	Astana, Kazakhstan
Born	14 February 1988 (age 36); Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Turned pro	2005
Retired	2014
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	$1,509,207
Official website	http://evgenykorolev.net/
Singles
Career record	71–89
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 46 (22 February 2010)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	3R (2010)
French Open	2R (2007)
Wimbledon	2R (2010)
US Open	2R (2008)
Doubles
Career record	10–28
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 113 (22 March 2010)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	2R (2010)
French Open	1R (2009)
Wimbledon	2R (2009)
Team competitions
Davis Cup	QF (2011)
	Last updated on: 9 January 2012.

Evgeny Korolev ([Евгений Королёв] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) is Kazakhstani tennis player and the cousin of former Russian player Anna Kournikova.^[1] He began playing tennis at age four with his father, and picked up his first ATP points at age 15 in three German challenger events. He can speak Russian, German, English and Spanish.

Personal

Korolev was raised in Moscow, then in the Russian SFSR of the Soviet Union, and began playing tennis at age four with his father, also named Evgeny, who still coaches him. Korolev did not play on the junior circuit and picked up his first ATP points at age 15 in three German competitions. His mother, Irina, is a housewife and sometimes travels to tournaments as well. He has one older brother, Alexey, who is also his physiotherapist and helps with his business matters. Korolev also had a private tutor who helped him speak Spanish, German and English.

Korolev's favorite surfaces are hard and clay courts and he considers the backhand his favorite shot, although he admits to generating more power off his forehand wing.^{[citation needed]}

Korolev married his long-time girlfriend, Anna, on 15 July 2011.^[2]

Career

Early years

Korolev began playing on the main tours in 2004 at the age of 16 in order to become physically stronger, and scored a run of wins. By the age of 16, he had compiled a respectable win/loss record.

In 2005, he won three futures and a challenger event. He started off the year with a defeat in a German futures event, although only after beating fellow hopeful Andrey Golubev on the way. He later claimed a second futures win in France, in which he beat home favorite Mathieu Montcourt in the final. He later won another futures event in Austria and an F1 event in France. His success in these contests convinced him to start playing more challenger events, including a victory in the Aachen challenger event, in which he beat Igor Kunitsyn and Dominik Meffert on his way to the title.

In 2006 Korolev claimed a win in Marseille over fellow countryman and world number 5 Nikolay Davydenko, but went on to lose in the quarter finals to French veteran Sébastien Grosjean. Shortly after, Korolev beat former World Number 1 and Grand Slam winner Carlos Moyá, before eliminating Andreas Seppi on his Grand Slam debut at Roland Garros, before going out to Gastón Gaudio. He then won another challenger contest, but lost to Sluiter in the final of the Aachen event, after having compiled a 14 match winning streak in that tournament.

2007–2008

Korolev then went on to the Australian Open 2007, in which he lost to the eventual runner-up Fernando González. He also lost to both Radek Štěpánek and James Blake prior to the event. He then reached the semi-finals of an American contest, losing to Jürgen Melzer, after beating James Blake and Sam Querrey in the earlier rounds. Korolev then played his first masters series event in Indian Wells, in which he was eliminated by Novak Djokovic in straight sets. He later described this as a learning curve, after wins over Simon Greul and close friend Dmitry Tursunov.

He later lost in the US Open to Stanislas Wawrinka. Korolev then once again claimed the Aachen challenger title by defeating Andreas Beck in the final to win the tournament for the third time. He then played in Saint Petersburg, but went out in straight sets against the British number 1, Andrew Murray.

In 2008, Korolev also claimed victories over the likes of Paul-Henri Mathieu and Fernando González, and reached the quarter-finals in Sydney, losing to Frenchman Fabrice Santoro.

During the second round of a tournament in Las Vegas, Korolev was leading 6–3 5–2 against number one seed Fernando González. He served for the match twice and was broken each time. He eventually prevailed in a second set tiebreak but needed 11 match points to win. He said that if he had lost that second set, he would have lost the match. In his first semifinal of the year, he lost to Nicolás Almagro in Valencia.

Korolev faced Robin Söderling in the first round in Rome. After losing in the first round at both Munich and Roland Garros, Korolev reached his third quarter-final of the year, in which he lost to the Russian number one, Nikolay Davydenko. At the US Open, Korolev beat Swedish Robin Söderling before losing to Gaël Monfils in the second round. After undergoing another hernia surgery, Korolev made a comeback on the Challenger Circuit in the fall. His biggest successes were a title win in Aachen and a semifinal showing in Düsseldorf.

2009

At the 2009 Australian Open, Korolev made his way through the qualifying rounds and beat former world number 1 Carlos Moyá, in the first round. He lost to Roger Federer in the second round 2–6, 3–6, 1–6.

At the end of February, Korolev reached his first ATP World Tour final at the Delray Beach tournament in the United States. Again starting in qualifying, he won seven straight matches (including wins over world number 38, Igor Kunitsyn, and over Guillermo García-López) before eventually falling in the final to top seed, Mardy Fish, 7–5, 6–3. This placed him back into the ATP Tour's top 100 players, at number 79.

After early losses in Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells and Miami, including a loss in the Sunrise, Florida Challenger, Korolev moved on to Houston, his first clay tournament of the year. There, he reached the semifinal, scoring wins against players such as Leonardo Mayer, Daniel Gimeno Traver, and Guillermo Cañas, before losing to the eventual champion Lleyton Hewitt 6–7, 4–6. That result brought him to the No. 72 in the world rankings.

Korolev struggled to build on that run, with Masters 1000 defeats to Juan Mónaco and Eduardo Schwank when aiming to qualify and was also put out of Munich in straight sets to Frenchman Jérémy Chardy. However, Korolev did manage to claim a victory in Düsseldorf over Andreas Seppi, later losing to both Troicki of Serbia and Máximo González of Argentina. At Roland Garros, Korolev had to pull out of a match with Gimeno Traver due to an ankle problem which had also forced him out of the doubles the week prior to the event.

His next scheduled event was at Queens Club where he was defeated by Frenchman Michaël Llodra. In Eastbourne, he bowed out to Garcia Lopez despite his previous winning record against the Spaniard. Korolev then faced good friend and fellow country man Igor Andreev at Wimbledon and lost in four sets. He has since taken part in occasional challenger events, although he admits his motivation has been hindered by the move to the lower ranks of world tennis,^{[citation needed]} possibly contributing to losses against Pere Riba and Roberto Bautista-Agut.

In September 2009, Evgeny Korolev won the 17th Szczecin Pekao Open, defeating Albert Montañés 4–6 6–3 6–2 in the semi-final, and Frenchman Florent Serra 6–4 6–3 in the final. He reached three straight ATP level quarterfinals. In the first, the 2009 Open de Moselle he lost to Philipp Kohlschreiber 6–1 6–3. In the 2009 PTT Thailand Open he lost to eventual champion Gilles Simon after defeating Fabrice Santoro and Robby Ginepri. Finally, in the 2009 Kremlin Cup he lost to Illya Marchenko 0–6 6–2 6–3 after defeating compatriots Igor Kunitsyn and Marat Safin.

As the sixth seed he lost in the first round of the 2009 St. Petersburg Open to qualifier and eventual champion Sergiy Stakhovsky. He played his last tournament of the year in the 2009 Davidoff Swiss Indoors as a qualifier, defeating Simone Bolelli 3–6, 7–6, 6–2 and Jérémy Chardy 6–4, 7–6, before losing to top seed Roger Federer 6–3, 6–2.

2010–2011

Korolev began the year at the 2010 Qatar ExxonMobil Open and the 2010 Medibank International Sydney, in both cases reaching the second round, losing to Roger Federer and Mardy Fish respectively. In the 2010 Australian Open he reached the third round losing to eleventh seed Fernando González in five sets 7–6, 3–6, 6–1, 3–6, 4–6 after defeating 21st seed Tomáš Berdych in straight sets. He then suffered early defeats in the first round of the 2010 PBZ Zagreb Indoors to Ivan Dodig, in the second round of the 2010 Regions Morgan Keegan Championships to Philipp Petzschner, and in the second round of the 2010 Delray Beach International Tennis Championships to Jarkko Nieminen. In the 2010 BNP Paribas Open, he lost to Robin Söderling 6–2, 6–4 in the second round, after defeating Florian Mayer 6–3, 6–2. In the first round of the 2010 Sony Ericsson Open he lost to Dudi Sela 6–3, 6–3. He then fell in the first rounds of 2010 U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships, 2010 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, and 2010 Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell, He then broke the losing streak at the 2010 Serbia Open defeating Michael Russell 6–1, 6–0, but fell in the next round to Sam Querrey. He then fell in his next four matches at the 2010 Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open, 2010 French Open, 2010 Aegon Championships and 2010 Aegon International. He then won against Eduardo Schwank 6–1, 7–6, 4–6, 6–2 but retired in the second round of 2010 Wimbledon against Lleyton Hewitt down 2 sets to love and 0–3. He then fell in the qualifying draw of 2010 MercedesCup and first round of 2010 International German Open. He then made his best performance of the year by reaching the quarterfinals of the 2010 Pilot Pen Tennis without droping a set but lost to Thiemo de Bakker in straight sets. At the US Open he retired against Kei Nishikori in the first round due to an elbow injury which sidelined him for the rest of the year and caused him to fall outside the top 100.

In 2011, due to his low ranking he started playing in the qualifying rounds and the challenger tour, but fell short, not being able to score back-to-back wins, until the 2011 Status Athens Open, where he reached the quarterfinals before falling to Dmitry Tursunov 7–5, 7–5.

Non-tennis activities and plans

Korolev has endorsed products such as deodorants and chocolate in Russia.

Singles finals

Titles

Legend (Singles)
Grand Slam (0)
Tennis Masters Cup (0)
ATP Masters Series (0)
ATP Tour (0)
Challengers (5)
Futures (4)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
1.	13 Sep 2004	Friedberg	Clay	Marius Zay	6–2, 6–2
2.	4 Apr 2005	Angers	Clay (i)	Mathieu Montcourt	5–7, 6–3, 7–6^(7–3)
3.	18 Jul 2005	Kramsach	Clay	Armin Sandbichler	7–6^(7–1), 6–0
4.	12 Sep 2005	Mulhouse	Hard	Philipp Hammer	6–4, 6–3
5.	31 Oct 2005	Aachen	Carpet (I)	Raemon Sluiter	6–3, 7–6^(9–7)
6.	4 Sep 2006	Düsseldorf	Clay	Andreas Vinciguerra	7–6^(7–4), 6–3
7.	29 Oct 2007	Aachen	Carpet (i)	Andreas Beck	6–4, 6–4
8.	27 Oct 2008	Aachen	Carpet (I)	Ruben Bemelmans	7–6^(7–5), 7–6^(7–3)
9.	20 September 2009	Szczecin	Carpet (i)	Florent Serra	6–4, 6–3