Aleksandar Kovacevic has finally crossed the barrier of the top 100 after chasing it for so long. The American had a successful 2023 by winning up to four Challenger tournaments and a year in which he wanted to bet on clay to continue his progression on all surfaces.
The time has come to land among the 100 best players in the world. Aleksandar Kovacevic He appeared this week in 85th place, the best of his career. And the American passed the classification of Open the Australia to achieve a very important victory in the first round against Alejandro Tabilo. He ended up falling with Karen Khachanov in his next match, but thus achieved his best result in a Grand Slam. “At some point I thought I would get there sooner rather than later and, for that reason, I didn’t care when it happened.”he said to the ATP about breaking through the top 100.
The American has worked hard over the last year to meet his goal. In fact, he has four Challenger titles in his record that he won last 2023 (Cleveland, Waco, Shenzhen y Temuco). All of them on hard court, which makes them opt for a single surface. However, he knows that he will need to also master clay and grass if he wants to become a more complete player. Thus, in April he had to decide whether he would embark again on a hard-court Challenger in Seoul or bet on growing on clay. “My coaches advised me: ‘Do you want to be a player sitting in the top 50 or just be a player around 90th who is just chasing points here and there.” To be at the highest level of tennis you need to be able to play on all surfaces,” confessed.
Although Kovacevic did not take advantage of the European dirt tour to add victories, he was not at all dissatisfied with his balance at the end of the year, signing his best season with 32 wins and 12 losses at the Challenger level. “The year before I remember talking to my coaches and telling them: ‘winning a tournament seems very difficult.’ Five games in a row against these really good players, how do you do it? “I was very happy to win the first one and if you had told me at the beginning of the year that I would win four Challengers, I would have said you are crazy.”
One day you are here and the next day there
And the 25-year-old player never gave up. Although he was very close to the top 100, Kovacevic knew that his time would come, no matter how dark things got. Last year was somewhat irregular, you know that, but everything can change from one moment to the next: “To win a tournament there is no special recipe, it is simply going game by game and giving your best that day. In some encounters things will not be pretty, but you will get ahead. It was an uneven year, as I won two Challengers quickly, then didn’t win any points for three months, and in the end I also ended the year great. You can be confident, lose a bad match and come back down to earth pretty quickly. This sport humbles you pretty quickly, but it can also change your life just as quickly.”.
2024-01-31 22:24:10
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