Alexander Volkov (tennis)

Alexander Volkov
Алекса́ндр Во́лков
Country (sports)	Soviet Union; Russia
Born	3 March 1967; Kaliningrad, Soviet Union
Died	19 October 2019 (aged 52); Kaliningrad, Russia
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Turned pro	1988
Retired	1998
Plays	Left-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	$3,362,840
Singles
Career record	303–255
Career titles	3
Highest ranking	No. 14 (23 August 1993)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	4R (1994)
French Open	3R (1990, 1992)
Wimbledon	4R (1987, 1990, 1991, 1994)
US Open	SF (1993)
Other tournaments
Grand Slam Cup	1R (1992, 1993)
Olympic Games	1R (1988)
Doubles
Career record	32–55
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 136 (9 October 1989)
Grand Slam doubles results
Wimbledon	2R (1988)
US Open	1R (1989)
Other doubles tournaments
Olympic Games	1R (1988)
Team competitions
Davis Cup	F (1994, 1995)
	Last updated on: 15 September 2022.

Alexander Vladimirovich Volkov (Russian: Алекса́ндр Влади́мирович Во́лков listen^ⓘ; 3 March 1967 – 19 October 2019^[1]) was a Russian professional tennis player.

Tennis career

Volkov finished runner-up in three tournaments over 1989 and 1990; in the latter year he defeated World No. 1 Stefan Edberg in straight sets in the first round of the US Open. Volkov won his first top-level professional singles title in 1991 at Milan. At Wimbledon that year, he lost a close match in the fourth round to the eventual tournament champion Michael Stich, 4–6, 6–3, 7–5, 1–6, 7–5 despite winning the same number of games as Stich overall in the match, which hinged on a lucky shot hit by the German when he was trailing 4–5 in the final set. With Volkov serving for the match, at 5-4 and 30–30, Stich hit a seemingly-wide shot that caught the net and, instead of going out, looped over Volkov's head and back into play for a winner. What could have been 40-30, and match-point for Volkov, instead became a vital break-point opportunity for Stich at 30-40, that he immediately converted. Stich subsequently won the next two games and the match.^[2]

Volkov was runner-up in three tournaments in 1992 and won his second title in 1993 in Auckland. Later in 1993, Volkov defeated Björn Borg in the first round of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, in a match which proved to be the last of Borg's career. Volkov won the Kremlin Cup a year later in 1994 to claim his third (and final) career title. He reached one more final in 1997 in Shanghai.

His best Grand Slam singles performance was reaching the semifinals of the 1993 US Open, where he defeated Jonathan Stark, Kevin Ullyett, Amos Mansdorf, Chuck Adams and Thomas Muster before losing to Pete Sampras.

Volkov was part of the Russian team that reached the final of the Davis Cup in 1994. He won singles rubbers over Patrick Rafter of Australia in the first round and Michael Stich of Germany in the semifinals. However, he lost both his singles rubbers in the final as Russia was defeated by Sweden 4–1.

Volkov retired from the professional tour in 1998. His career-high singles ranking was world No. 14 in 1994. His career prize-money earnings totalled $3,362,786.

He was Marat Safin's coach before the duo split in July 2007.

ATP career finals

Singles: 11 (3 titles, 8 runner-ups)

Legend
Grand Slam Tournaments (0–0)
ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
ATP Masters Series (0–0)
ATP Championship Series (0–0)
ATP World Series (3–8)

Finals by surface
Hard (1–3)
Clay (0–0)
Grass (0–1)
Carpet (2–4)

Finals by setting
Outdoors (1–4)
Indoors (2–4)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	0–1	Feb 1989	Milan, Italy	Grand Prix	Carpet	Boris Becker	1–6, 2–6
Loss	0–2	Jan 1990	Rosmalen, Netherlands	World Series	Grass	Amos Mansdorf	3–6, 6–7
Loss	0–3	Oct 1990	Berlin, Germany	World Series	Carpet	Ronald Agénor	6–4, 4–6, 6–7^(8–10)
Win	1–3	Feb 1991	Milan, Italy	World Series	Carpet	Cristiano Caratti	6–1, 7–5
Loss	1–4	Jan 1992	Wellington, New Zealand	World Series	Hard	Jeff Tarango	1–6, 0–6, 3–6
Loss	1–5	Mar 1992	Rotterdam, Netherlands	World Series	Carpet	Boris Becker	6–7^(9–11), 6–4, 2–6
Loss	1–6	Apr 1992	Johannesburg, South Africa	World Series	Hard	Aaron Krickstein	4–6, 4–6
Win	2–6	Jan 1993	Auckland, New Zealand	World Series	Hard	MaliVai Washington	7–6^(7–2), 6–4
Loss	2–7	Jan 1994	Adelaide, Australia	World Series	Hard	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	4–6, 3–6
Win	3–7	Nov 1994	Moscow, Russia	World Series	Carpet	Chuck Adams	6–2, 6–4
Loss	3–8	Feb 1997	Shanghai, China	World Series	Carpet	Ján Krošlák	2–6, 6–7^(2–7)

Doubles: 3 (3 runner-ups)

Legend
Grand Slam Tournaments (0–0)
ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
ATP Masters Series (0–0)
ATP Championship Series (0–0)
ATP World Series (0–3)

Finals by surface
Hard (0–2)
Clay (0–0)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–1)

Finals by setting
Outdoors (0–2)
Indoors (0–1)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partnet	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	Nov 1991	Moscow, Russia	World Series	Carpet	Andrey Cherkasov	Eric Jelen Carl-Uwe Steeb	4–6, 6–7
Loss	0–2	Jan 1993	Auckland, New Zealand	World Series	Hard	Alex Antonitsch	Grant Connell Patrick Galbraith	3–6, 6–7
Loss	0–3	Aug 1996	Long Island, United States	World Series	Hard	Hendrik Dreekmann	Luke Jensen Murphy Jensen	3–6, 6–7

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 1 (1–0)

Legend
ATP Challenger (1–0)
ITF Futures (0–0)

Finals by surface
Hard (1–0)
Clay (0–0)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–0)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Nov 1996	Aachen, Germany	Challenger	Hard	David Prinosil	6–3, 7–6

Performance timeline

**Key**
W	F	SF	QF	#R	RR	Q#	DNQ	A	NH

(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.

Singles

Tournament	1986	1987	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	SR	W–L	Win %
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open	NH	A	1R	A	2R	1R	3R	3R	4R	1R	1R	A	0 / 8	8–8	–
French Open	A	A	1R	A	3R	1R	3R	1R	2R	1R	1R	2R	0 / 9	6–9	40%
Wimbledon	Q1	4R	2R	1R	4R	4R	3R	2R	4R	3R	3R	1R	0 / 11	20–11	65%
US Open	A	1R	A	3R	2R	2R	QF	SF	1R	3R	3R	1R	0 / 10	17–10	63%
Win–loss	0–0	3–2	1–3	2–2	7–4	4–4	10–4	8–4	7–4	4–4	4–4	1–3	0 / 38	51–38	57%
National Representation
Summer Olympics	NH		1R	Not Held			A	Not Held			A	NH	0 / 1	0–1	0%
Year-end Championships
Grand Slam Cup	Did not qualify						1R	1R	Did not qualify				0 / 2	0–2	0%
ATP Masters Series
Indian Wells	A	A	A	1R	1R	2R	A	SF	QF	A	A	A	0 / 5	8–5	62%
Miami	A	1R	3R	3R	4R	2R	A	2R	2R	A	A	A	0 / 7	7–7	50%
Monte Carlo	A	A	A	A	A	3R	2R	A	A	A	A	A	0 / 2	3–2	60%
Hamburg	A	A	A	1R	1R	3R	1R	A	1R	1R	1R	Q1	0 / 7	2–7	22%
Rome	A	A	A	A	2R	2R	1R	A	2R	1R	A	A	0 / 5	3–5	38%
Canada	A	A	A	A	1R	A	A	QF	1R	1R	A	A	0 / 4	2–4	33%
Cincinnati	A	A	1R	1R	A	A	2R	3R	1R	A	A	A	0 / 5	3–5	38%
Paris	A	2R	A	A	1R	QF	3R	2R	1R	2R	A	A	0 / 7	6–7	46%
Win–loss	0–0	1–2	2–2	2–4	6–6	8–6	2–5	8–5	4–7	1–4	0–1	0–0	0 / 42	34–42	45%

Junior Grand Slam finals

Doubles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Result	Year	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	1985	French Open	Clay	Vladimer Gabrichidze	Petr Korda Cyril Suk	6–4, 0–6, 5–7

Top 10 wins

Season	1987	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	Total
Wins	0	0	2	3	1	5	1	4	1	0	0	17

#	Player	Rank	Event	Surface	Rd	Score	VR
1989
1.	Miloslav Mečíř	8	Davis Cup, Prague, Czechoslovakia	Carpet (i)	RR	6–2, 6–7, 6–0	64
2.	Jakob Hlasek	8	Milan, Italy	Carpet (i)	2R	7–6, 7–5	61
1990
3.	Tim Mayotte	10	Miami, USA	Hard	2R	6–1, 6–4	100
4.	Stefan Edberg	1	US Open, New York, USA	Hard	1R	6–3, 7–6, 6–2	52
5.	Emilio Sánchez	8	Stockholm, Sweden	Carpet (i)	2R	7–5, 6–3	34
1991
6.	Karel Nováček	9	Basel, Switzerland	Hard (i)	QF	6–1, 6–7, 6–3	24
1992
7.	Karel Nováček	10	Milan, Italy	Carpet (i)	1R	7–6, 7–6	25
8.	Ivan Lendl	7	Stuttgart, Germany	Carpet (i)	2R	7–6, 5–7, 6–1	28
9.	Guy Forget	6	Stuttgart, Germany	Carpet (i)	QF	6–4, 6–4	28
10.	Goran Ivanišević	5	US Open, New York, USA	Hard	3R	6–4, 6–0, 6–3	20
11.	Stefan Edberg	3	Tokyo, Japan	Carpet (i)	QF	6–3, 3–6, 7–5	17
1993
12.	Pete Sampras	2	Indian Wells, United States	Hard	3R	7–5, 6–4	22
1994
13.	Michael Chang	8	Indian Wells, United States	Hard	3R	6–4, 1–6, 6–3	18
14.	Michael Stich	2	World Team Cup, Düsseldorf, Germany	Clay	RR	6–4, 7–6	22
15.	Michael Stich	2	Davis Cup, Hamburg, Germany	Hard	RR	7–5, 1–6, 7–6, 6–4	42
16.	Alberto Berasategui	8	Ostrava, Czech Republic	Carpet (i)	1R	7–6, 6–4	44
1995
17.	Sergi Bruguera	4	Stuttgart, Germany	Carpet (i)	1R	6–4, 2–3 ret.	40

References

^ James Buddell (19 October 2019). "Alexander Volkov: 1967–2019". Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).
^ Philip, Robert (29 June 2007). "Recent recollection by Stich of the manner of his victory over Volkov". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 23 April 2010.^{[dead link]}

External links

Alexander Volkov at the Association of Tennis Professionals
Alexander Volkov at the International Tennis Federation
Alexander Volkov at the Davis Cup
Aleksandr Volkov at Olympedia
Aleksandr Volkov at Olympics.com

[1] James Buddell (19 October 2019). "Alexander Volkov: 1967–2019". Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).

[2] Philip, Robert (29 June 2007). "Recent recollection by Stich of the manner of his victory over Volkov". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 23 April 2010.^{[dead link]}

Singles

Country (sports)	Soviet Union Russia
Born	(1967-03-03)3 March 1967 Kaliningrad, Soviet Union
Died	19 October 2019(2019-10-19) (aged 52) Kaliningrad, Russia
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Turned pro	1988
Retired	1998
Plays	Left-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	$3,362,840
Career record	303–255
Career titles	3
Highest ranking	No. 14 (23 August 1993)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	4R (1994)
French Open	3R (1990, 1992)
Wimbledon	4R (1987, 1990, 1991, 1994)
US Open	SF (1993)
Other tournaments
Grand Slam Cup	1R (1992, 1993)
Olympic Games	1R (1988)
Doubles
Career record	32–55
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 136 (9 October 1989)
Grand Slam doubles results
Wimbledon	2R (1988)
US Open	1R (1989)
Other doubles tournaments
Olympic Games	1R (1988)
Team competitions
Davis Cup	F (1994, 1995)
Last updated on: 15 September 2022.

v t e Russian Cup — Tennis Triumph of the Year
(1994) Nomination didn't exist (1995) Andrei Chesnokov (1996) Anna Kournikova (1997) Alexander Volkov (1998) Marat Safin (1999) Lina Krasnoroutskaya¹ (2000) Marat Safin (2001-2007) Not given (2008) Elena Dementieva (2009-2019) Not given (2020)² Not held (2021) Nikita Burmakin³ (2022) Veronika Kudermetova
Notes: ¹ = juniors' circuit player awarded before the existence of the Juniors nomination, ² = postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia, ³ = beach tennis