Alexander Volkov (tennis)
# Alexander Volkov (tennis)

Alexander Vladimirovich Volkov (Russian: Алекса́ндр Влади́мирович Во́лков listen (help·info); 3 March 1967 – 19 October 2019) 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.

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 |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |

### 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 | NH | 1R | Not Held | Not Held | Not Held | A | Not Held | Not Held | Not Held | A | NH | 0 / 1 | 0–1 | 0% |
| Year-end Championships ||||||||||||||||
| Grand Slam Cup | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | 1R | 1R | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | 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 |
