Oleksandr Dolhopolov

Oleksandr Dolhopolov
Oleksandr Dolhopolow at the US Open in 2016
Nickname:	Dolgo, The Dog, Sascha
Nation:	Ukraine
Birthday:	November 7, 1988
Size:	180 cm
Weight:	71 kg
1st professional season:	2006
Playing hand:	Right, two-handed backhand
Trainer:	Stas Khmarskiy
Prize money:	$ 7,076,727
singles
Career record:	221: 201
Career title:	3
Highest ranking:	13 (January 16, 2012)
Current placement:	54
Grand Slam record
Double
Career record:	27:57
Career title:	1
Highest ranking:	42 (January 9, 2012)
Grand Slam record
Last update of the infobox: May 21, 2018
Sources: official player profiles at the ATP / WTA and ITF (see web links )

Oleksandr Oleksandrowytsch Dolhopolov ( Ukrainian Олександр Олександрович Долгополов , scientific transliteration Oleksandr Oleksandrovyč Dolhopolov ; born November 7, 1988 in Kiev , then Ukrainian SSR , Soviet Union ) is a Ukrainian player .

Career

Until 2005: Background and junior career

Oleksandr Dolhopolov was born to sporty parents. His mother Elena was a track and field athlete, his father Oleksandr Dolhopolow senior played tennis and in 1986 came to 504th place in the tennis world rankings . It was also his father who taught Oleksandr to play tennis at the age of three and coached him until 2008. Since his father was the coach of the top 10 player Andrij Medwedjew for a long time , his son got to know the world of professional tennis early on; As a child he played with top players like Andre Agassi and Boris Becker .

Dolhopolow's greatest success as a junior was the quarter-finals at the French Open 2005 . He also reached the final of several smaller junior tournaments, so that he climbed to 21st place in the junior world rankings. From October 2005 he played future tournaments for adults.

2006: Future tournament victories and ATP debut

In 2006, at the age of 17, he won five future tournaments in Egypt, the Ukraine, Belarus and Italy and thus improved to the top 400 in the world rankings. In August 2006 he took part in a Challenger tournament for the first time , and in September 2006 he qualified for his first ATP tournament in Bucharest . He lost there in the first round against Christophe Rochus . Nevertheless, a week later he was appointed to the Ukrainian Davis Cup team for the first time . However , he had no chance against Andy Murray - he could not prevent the 3-2 defeat against Great Britain.

2007–2009: Success on the Challenger Tour

In January 2007, Dolhopolow first took part in the qualification of a Grand Slam tournament at the Australian Open , but failed in the first round. In return, he managed to qualify for an ATP tournament for the second time in Pörtschach , but lost to Luis Horna in round one . In June 2007 the first title at a Challenger tournament followed in Sassuolo , so that he improved to 177th place in the ranking.

In the following twelve months, Dolhopolow was hardly successful, so that in August 2008 he slipped to 4th place. In September 2008 he was able to stop the downward trend when he qualified for the main draw at the Challenger tournament in Trnava and got into the semi-finals.

In July 2009 a series of successes began. After participating in the semi-finals at the Challenger tournament in Poznan , he won three Challenger tournaments ( Orbetello , Como and Trnava ) within two months . In October followed in St. Petersburg against Robby Ginepri of the first match win on the ATP World Tour . Dolhopolow finished the year at number 131 in the world.

2010: Advance into the top 100

The success continued in 2010. After a round of 16 at the ATP tournament in Brisbane , Dolhopolow came in February 2010 at the Challenger tournament in Tangier in the final and a week later he won the title in Meknes , making him for the first time among the top 100 in the world rankings. From then on, he played regularly at ATP tournaments and met at the Masters tournament in Madrid after a first round win over Andreas Seppi in the second round on the clay court king Rafael Nadal , against whom he played a decent game. He was able to confirm this performance at the French Open when he was able to advance into the third round in his first Grand Slam tournament. He defeated local hero Arnaud Clément in an almost four-hour five-set match and then Fernando González, who was seeded in 12th position, in three sets before losing to the later quarter-finalist Nicolás Almagro . A month later, Dolhopolow proved in Eastbourne that he can also play successfully on grass when he was only stopped in the semifinals by Michaël Llodra . In his first appearance at Wimbledon , he won his first match against Marco Chiudinelli in three sets and met in the second round against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who was 10th . After losing the first two sets, he fought his way into a fifth set, but then lost to the favorites after almost four hours of play. With that, Dolhopolow reached his best world ranking position to date with 39th place. In August 2010 he reached the last sixteen at the Canada Masters in Toronto after victories over Philipp Petzschner and Michail Juschny , in which he had to admit defeat to the Wimbledon finalist Tomáš Berdych in three tight sets . At the Cincinnati Masters and the US Open , he was eliminated in the first round against David Ferrer . In October 2010 he defeated two top 20 players in Beijing and Shanghai with Marcos Baghdatis and Nicolás Almagro, but lost his second round game. At the tournaments in Moscow and Saint Petersburg he was eliminated in the quarterfinals.

Dolgopolov on serve

2011–2012: Australian Open quarter-finals and first ATP title

In early 2011, he reached another quarter-finals in Sydney by defeating top seeded Sam Querrey , which he lost to eventual tournament winner Gilles Simon . On his Australian Open debut, after victories over Michail Kukuschkin and Benjamin Becker , Dolhopolow met Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who was 13th in the third round, against whom he had lost in five sets at Wimbledon. Again it was a five-set match, but this time Dolgopolov got the upper hand in the end. The next match against Robin Söderling , who was placed in 4th position , lasted five sets and again Dolhopolow was able to prevail against the favorite. In his first Grand Slam quarter-finals, he was able to win a set against later finalist Andy Murray, but he lost the match in four sets. In February 2011 he reached an ATP final in Costa do Sauípe for the first time in his career, but was defeated there in two sets by the top seed Nicolás Almagro. Two weeks later he reached the semi-finals in Acapulco, among other things by defeating Stanislas Wawrinka . He won the first set against defending champion and eventual tournament winner David Ferrer , but lost the match in three sets. At the Masters tournament in Indian Wells , Dolhopolow failed in the individual in the third round to the later semi-finalist Juan Martín del Potro . At the side of Xavier Malisse , however, he managed a narrow victory over Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka and thus his first ATP title. At the following Masters tournament in Miami , he defeated Tsonga again in the third round in a close match of three sets before losing significantly to world number one Nadal in the round of 16. After several first round defeats followed in May 2011 a success in Nice , where Dolhopolow defeated the top seeded David Ferrer in the quarterfinals, but then lost to Victor Hănescu in the semifinals . At the French Open , like last year, he reached the third round, in which he lost to Viktor Troicki . At Wimbledon, on the other hand, he was eliminated in the first round against Fernando González this year . At the end of July 2011 Dolhopolow was finally able to win his first ATP individual title in Umag . He defeated the defending champion Juan Carlos Ferrero in the semifinals and then local hero Marin Čilić in the final . In September 2011 he reached the first sixteen at the US Open . There he had against the world number one and later tournament winner Novak Đoković in the tie-break of the first set several set balls, but could not use any and finally lost the match in three sets. In September 2011 he reached another ATP semifinal in Metz , and in October he advanced to the quarter-finals at the Masters tournament in Shanghai . Although he could only win one out of five games in the final indoor tournaments, he climbed to 15th place in the world rankings at the end of the year.

He started 2012 with the ATP tournament in Brisbane . There he moved into the final with a two-set win over Gilles Simon , who was seeded in second position , but which he also clearly lost in two sets to world number four Andy Murray. At the Australian Open , he struggled with five-set wins in the first two rounds with Greg Jones and Tobias Kamke, who were significantly lower . The third round match against local hero Bernard Tomic also went the full distance, but this time Dolhopolow left the field as the loser. The other three Grand Slam tournaments were not very successful either, the best result he achieved at the US Open , where he lost to Wawrinka in the third round. Before that he won the tournament in Washington , where he defeated Tommy Haas in three sets in the final and won his second career title. Dolhopolow ended the year in 18th place in the world.

Since 2013

At both the Australian Open and the French Open , he was eliminated in the first round against Gaël Monfils and Dmitri Tursunow . At Wimbledon he moved into the third round without losing a set, where he was defeated by David Ferrer in five sets. At the US hard court tournament in Winston-Salem , he reached the semifinals, where he lost again to Monfils. At the US Open , he failed in the second round to Michail Juschny . Due to the weaker results compared to the previous year, he fell further and further back in the world rankings and even out of the top 50 at the end of the season.

The 2014 season began for Dolhopolow with an opening defeat in Doha , at the Australian Open he was defeated in the second round to Jérémy Chardy in four sets. At the tournament in Rio de Janeiro he defeated three players from the top 20, Nicolás Almagro, Fabio Fognini and David Ferrer , before losing to Rafael Nadal in the final . At the subsequent tournament in Acapulco , he reached the semi-finals. He was able to repeat this success at the Masters in Indian Wells . He defeated Nadal in three sets in the third round and then defeated Fabio Fognini and Milos Raonic before conceding a clear defeat against Federer. After the tournament in Hamburg , he underwent knee surgery and therefore missed the entire hard court season in the United States including the US Open .

Dolgopolov with the two-handed backhand

Play style

Alexander Dolhopolov's style of play is often described as unusual and unorthodox. His service movement is extremely fast, which makes it difficult for the opponent to react to it. In his basic strokes, Dolhopolow varies between powerful strokes with a lot of angle and cut slice balls, both with the forehand and with the two-handed backhand. His goal: "to play unpredictably and to drive opponents into uncomfortable situations".

Remarks

Since May 2010 Dolhopolow has been listed as Alexandr Dolgopolov at the ATP , which corresponds to the Russian pronunciation of his name. Initially, he also had a Jr. as an addition to his name to avoid confusion with his father.

Dolhopolow suffers from the blood disease Meulengracht's disease , which is so noticeable to him that he feels weak and tired, especially after long flights for weeks, and has to be treated intravenously.

successes

Legend (number of victories) Grand Slam ATP World Tour Finals ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (1) ATP World Tour 500 (1) ATP World Tour 250 (2) ATP Challenger Tour (5)

Title after covering Hard Court (2) Sand (2) Lawn (0)

singles

Victories

ATP Challenger Tour

No.	date	competition	Topping	Final opponent	Result
1.	June 10, 2007	Sassuolo	sand	Héctor Ruiz Cadenas	6: 1, 6: 4
2.	August 2, 2009	Orbetello	sand	Pablo Andújar	6: 4, 6: 2
3.	September 6, 2009	Como	sand	Juan-Martín Aranguren	7: 5, 7: 6 5
4th	September 27, 2009	Trnava	sand	Lamine Ouahab	6: 2, 6: 2
5.	February 28, 2010	Meknes	sand	Rui Machado	7: 5, 6: 2

ATP World Tour

No.	date	competition	Topping	Final opponent	Result
1.	July 31, 2011	Umag	sand	Marin Čilić	6: 4, 3: 6, 6: 3
2.	5th August 2012	Washington, DC	Hard court	Tommy Haas	6: 7 7 , 6: 4, 6: 1
3.	19th February 2017	Buenos Aires	sand	Kei Nishikori	7: 6 4 , 6: 4

Final participation

No.	date	competition	Topping	Final opponent	Result
1.	February 12, 2011	Costa do Sauípe	sand	Nicolás Almagro	3: 6, 6: 7 3
2.	January 8, 2012	Brisbane	Hard court	Andy Murray	1: 6, 3: 6
3.	October 28, 2012	Valencia	Hard court (i)	David Ferrer	1: 6, 6: 3, 4: 6
4th	February 23, 2014	Rio de Janeiro	sand	Rafael Nadal	3: 6, 6: 7 3
5.	23rd July 2017	Båstad	sand	David Ferrer	4: 6, 4: 6
6th	October 1, 2017	Shenzhen	Hard court	David Goffin	4: 6, 7: 6 5 , 3: 6

Double

Victories

No.	date	competition	Topping	partner	Final opponent	Result
1.	March 20, 2011	Indian Wells	Hard court	Xavier Malisse	Roger Federer Stanislas Wawrinka	6: 4, 6: 7 5 , [10: 7]

Final participation

No.	date	competition	Topping	partner	Final opponent	Result
1.	January 11, 2015	Brisbane	Hard court	Kei Nishikori	Jamie Murray John Peers	3: 6, 6: 7 4

Statistics at the Grand Slam tournaments

singles

Tournament 1	2018	2017	2016	2015	2014	2013	2012	2011	2010	2009	2008	2007	2006	2005	total
Australian Open	3R	2R	2R	1R	2R	1R	3R	VF	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q1	-	-	VF
French Open		2R	-	1R	2R	1R	1R	3R	R3	-	Q1	Q2	-	-	3R
Wimbledon		1R	2R	2R	3R	3R	2R	1R	R2	-	-	-	-	-	3R
US Open		AF	1R	1R	-	2R	3R	AF	R1	-	-	-	-	-	AF
Individual titles won	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	3
Overall wins / defeats 2	2: 1	28:23	17:17	26:27	27:21	24:27	34:25	38:29	21:23	1: 1	0-0	0: 2	0: 2	0-0	216: 196
Year-end position	(38)	38	62	36	23	57	18th	15th	48	131	309	226	269	1523	N / A

Explanation of symbols: S = tournament victory; F, HF, VF, AF = entry into the final / semi-finals / quarter-finals / round of 16; 1R, 2R, 3R = elimination in the 1st / 2nd / 3rd main round or Q1, Q2, Q3 = elimination in the 1st / 2nd / 3rd qualifying round

¹ tournament result in brackets means that the player has not yet finished the tournament; it shows its current tournament status. After the player finishes the tournament, the bracket is removed.
² As of the end of the 2017 season

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Oleksandr Dolgopolov Sr. | Overview | ATP World Tour | Tennis. Accessed June 30, 2016 . 
2. ↑ The Dog Unleashed. In: atpworldtour.com. February 9, 2011, archived from the original on April 8, 2015 ; accessed on January 16, 2017 (English). 
3. ↑ Kamakshi Tandon: Dolgopolov to undergo surgery, will not play US Open series. In: tennis.com. July 14, 2014, accessed January 16, 2017 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Pete Bodo: Peter Bodo's TennisWorld - Blood Simple. In: tennisworld.typepad.com. August 31, 2010, accessed June 30, 2016 . 
5. ↑ ^{a b} Tom Perrotta: The Lost Art of Playing Weirdly. In: wsj.com. May 11, 2011, accessed June 30, 2016 . 
6. ↑ A breath of fresh air on the tour. In: tennismagazin.de. April 13, 2011, accessed June 30, 2016 . 

Web links

Commons : Oleksandr Dolhopolow  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• ATP profile of Oleksandr Dolhopolow (English)
• ITF profile of Oleksandr Dolhopolow (English)
• Davis Cup statistics from Oleksandr Dolhopolow (English)
• Official Homepage (English)