Alex Bogdanovic
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| Country |  United Kingdom |
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| Residence | London, England, UK | |
| Date of birth | May 22, 1984 | |
| Place of birth | Belgrade, Yugoslavia | |
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (183 cm) | |
| Weight | 163 lb (74 kg) | |
| Turned Pro | 2002 | |
| Retired | Active | |
| Plays | Left | |
| Career Prize Money | $272,423 (USD) | |
| Singles | ||
| Career record: | 7 - 17 | |
| Career titles: | 0 | |
| Highest ranking: | 114 (October 16, 2006) | |
| Grand Slam results | ||
| Australian Open | - | |
| French Open | - | |
| Wimbledon | 1st (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006) | |
| U.S. Open | 1st (2004) | |
| Doubles | ||
| Career record: | 0 - 2 | |
| Career titles: | 0 | |
| Highest ranking: | 639 (July 21, 2003) | |
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Infobox last updated on: October 10, 2006. |
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Aleksa (Alex) Bogdanovic (born May 22, 1984) is an English tennis player. Born in Belgrade, Alex moved to Britain when he was 7 and took up tennis as a means of making new friends.
[edit] Early career
[edit] 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 that.
[edit] 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, as the youngest man in the draw, losing in the first round, and won the Futures tournament in Nottingham, his first senior international title. That autumn he won the senior national championships, beating Martin Lee again and defeating Jamie Delgado 7-5, 6-2 in the final.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 2006 Activity
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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 tounaments 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Davis Cup Euro-Asia Group One tie, vs Israel
He played in Great Britain's Davis Cup tie versus Israel on July 21st-23rd, where he was the team's 2nd seed. Alex lost his singles rubber in straight sets to Okun 4-6 5-7 2-6, however during the 1st set Alex tore a groin muscle and this severely impeded his movement and after the tie it forced Alex to take 3 week off.
[edit] Graz, Austria
He made his return to the tour in a $25,000 Challenger tournament in Graz, Austria and lost in rd1 in two close sets to Germany's Dieter Kindlemamm 6-4, 7-6. However, Alex's groin was still very sore and affecting his movement, he was rusty from not being able to practise much due to his injury and he was playing on rebound ace in Graz which is one of his least favourite surfaces.
[edit] US Open Qualifying
Alex entered the US Open qualifying coming up against in-form nemisis Noam Okun in rd1. Okun had just made the semis of the Vancouver challenger. He beat Alex 6-4, 6-2 and went on to qualify and reach rd3 of the main draw, Alex felt that he hadn't been able to play his best because his injury was still inhibiting him though it was getting better.
[edit] Orleans, France
He entered a 75K challenger in Orleans and beat big-serving Dutchman Peter Wessels 6-3, 6-0 in rd1. He lost in rd2 to hard-hitting Italian Andrea Stoppini 6-3, 6-4
[edit] Bangkok Open, Thailand
Alex has gained entry into the main draw for ATP Bangkok and faces Yeu-Tzuoo [Jimmy] Wang in rd1 who he duly beat 6-7 (7-9) 6-4 6-4. Bogdanovic was a break down in the final set and surged back from 4-3 down to serve for the match and won the match eventually on his 4th match point.
He then faced fellow Brit Tim Henman in rd2 who knocked out Andy Murray who was last years finalist here in Bangkok in straight sets. Bogdanovic did threaten Henman's opening service game of the match but Henman fought off the break point during that game but further into the 1st set, Henman eventually broke Bogdanovic to take a 4-3 lead and Henman duly took the 1st set 6-3. Bogdanovic did threaten Henman's opening service game in the 2nd set but to no avail as Henman held on, later on Bogdanovic did finally break Henman and took a 4-2 lead in the 2nd set, only 2 games later Henman broke back to level. Henman was broken again at 5-5, then Bogdanovic then had to save 3 break points in his next service game and held his nerve to take that game and the 2nd set. Alex then eventually was the one who got broken in the 3rd set and ending up losing it 6-1. Bogdanovic ending up losing 3-6 7-5 1-6, Henman admitted after the match that he had to work very hard to grind out a 3 set win against Alex [1]
[edit] Ethias Trophy, Mons, Belgium
Alex entered this $125K challenger and in the 1st round Alex faced Alejandro Falla who qualified for the Wimbledon and US Open this year and reached rd2 in both of them. Alex duly dispatched him in straight sets 6-3 6-2 and in rd2 faced a possible opponent for the Davis Cup tie next year against Holland, Raemon Sluiter and in a hard fought match Alex was able to come through in 3 sets 4-6 7-5 6-4.
His next opponent was wild card entrant Stefan Wauters who shocked the world no 35 Kristof Vliegen in the previous round. Alex managed to get through Wauters in 3 and go through to the semi-finals, 6-2 4-6 7-5. His semi-final opponent was Marco Chiudinelli who of late qualified for the US Open and reached the 3rd round and beat world no 81 in the Quarter-finals here in Mons. Alex dispatched him in 3 in which the 1st 2 sets went to tie-breakers and Alex getting the best of the 1st one and Chiudinelli got the better in the 2nd. Alex was able to break in the final set and finally took the match and won 7-6(5) 6-7(4) 6-3.
In the final he faced an in-form Janko Tipsarevic who dispatched Olivier Rochus world no 30 in the Quarters and young Russian Evgeny Korolev in the Semis to get to the final. Alex ended up losing in 3 sets 4-6 6-1 2-6 in which was a very good week for him. In which he gained his highest ever entry ranking points total points from a single tournament in his career. gaining 63 here compared to 60 in Bergamo at the start of the year [2]
He also climbed the rankings by reaching the final getting to a career best 119 and not far from breaking the top 100.
[edit] Kolding, Denmark
Alex entered this $50k+H challenger event and was seeded 5th in the main draw. He was drawn against Spainard Marc Lopez in the 1st round who has won 2 challengers this year. Alex had no trouble disposing Lopez and only lost 4 games in total in the whole match which ended 6-3 6-1. He then beat Italian Uros Vico 7-6 7-6. Alex then went out in the Quarter Finals to top seed Raemon Sluiter who he beat in a previous challenger in Mons, Alex losing in 2 tie breaks 6-7 6-7.
[edit] Links
Official website: http://www.alexbogdanovic.com
