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Alex Kuznetsov is an American tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

 player, accomplished in junior tennis

Junior tennis

Junior Tennis refers to tennis games where the participants are aged 18 and under. Eligibility to compete is not based on age, but year of birth: as a result, some players must move out of juniors soon after their 18th birthday, while others can play juniors until they are nearly 19...

. He moved from Ukraine to the US when he was 3 years old. Some consider him to be among the "next wave" of American tennis players, along with other young American players such as Sam Querrey

Sam Querrey

Sam Austin Querrey is a professional American tennis player from Thousand Oaks, California currently living in Las Vegas, Nevada. As of August 2010, he is the fourth-highest ranked American. His career high rank was #17, achieved on January 31, 2011. His height allows him to play with a strong...

, John Isner

John Isner

John Robert Isner is an American professional tennis player. He achieved his career-high rank of no. 18 on July 5, 2010, and has been as high as the second-ranked American tennis player behind Andy Roddick...

, Jesse Witten

Jesse Witten

Jesse Witten is an American professional tennis player. He is a graduate of Lely High School and the University of Kentucky, where he majored in Kinesiology.- College career :...

, Ryan Sweeting

Ryan Sweeting

Ryan Sweeting is a Bahamian-born American professional tennis player.-Tennis career:Sweeting was born in Nassau, Bahamas, and has lived and trained in Ft. Lauderdale since the age of 12...

, and Jesse Levine

Jesse Levine

Jesse Levine is a Canadian-born American professional tennis player. He achieved his career-high singles rank of No. 94 on November 3, 2008....

.

Some hope that young players such as Kuznetsov, Isner, Witten, Levine, Sweeting and Querrey can provide a boost to American tennis, with Pete Sampras

Pete Sampras

Pete Sampras is a retired American tennis player and former world no. 1. During his 15-year tour career, he won 14 Grand Slam singles titles and became recognized as one of the greatest tennis players of all time....

 and Andre Agassi

Andre Agassi

Andre Kirk Agassi is a retired American professional tennis player and former world no. 1. Generally considered by critics and fellow players to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time, Agassi has been called the best service returner in the history of the game...

 retired and "aging" American tennis players Andy Roddick

Andy Roddick

Andrew Stephen "Andy" Roddick is an American professional tennis player and a former World No. 1. He is currently the second highest-ranked American player, behind Mardy Fish....

, James Blake

James Blake

James Riley Blake is an American professional tennis player. Blake is known for his speed and powerful, flat forehand. As of August 2011, Blake is ranked no. 63 among active male players with 24 career finals appearances...

, and Mardy Fish

Mardy Fish

Mardy Simpson Fish is an American professional tennis player, and Olympic silver medalist. He is a hardcourt specialist...

. Though born in Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

, his family moved to the United States when he was three, and settled just outside of Philadelphia. He still resides there, in Richboro, Pennsylvania

Richboro, Pennsylvania

Richboro is a census-designated place in Northampton Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 6,563 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Richboro is located at ....

. Alex is represented by Gavin Forbes and Olivier van Lindonk of IMG.

Juniors

Coached by Robert Fisher at Germantown Cricket Club during youth. Considered by Brad Gilbert at one time "(The)Next big thing in American Tennis" after Andy Roddick, Passing on then top American Junior, Jarrett Chirico who now coaches at Germantown Cricket Club. Alex was given this title because at the time the USTA thought big body with hard serve would turn out the best players, like Andy Roddick.

Turning Pro

Nike offered Alex a 2 million dollar sponsorship contract as soon as he turned pro which he accepted.

2006

In July 2006 Alex played in the Comerica Challenger in Aptos def Go Soeda for the 2006 singles title
In his ATP Tour Grand Slam

Grand Slam (tennis)

The four Major tennis tournaments, also called the Slams, are the most important tennis events of the year in terms of world tour ranking points, tradition, prize-money awarded, strength and size of player field, and public attention. They are the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and...

 career, he played singles in the US Open

U.S. Open (tennis)

The US Open, formally the United States Open Tennis Championships, is a hardcourt tennis tournament which is the modern iteration of one of the oldest tennis championships in the world, the U.S. National Championship, which for men's singles was first contested in 1881...

 in 2006, losing to 14th seeded Tommy Haas

Tommy Haas

Tommy Haas is a German and recently naturalized American professional tennis player. He has competed on the ATP Tour since 1996. After breaking into the world top 100 in 1997, and reaching a career-high ranking of world no...

, and the 2007 Australian Open

2007 Australian Open

The 2007 Australian Open was a Grand Slam tennis tournament held in Melbourne, Australia from 15 January until 28 January 2007.The total prize pool was set at exactly A$20 million, with the winners of both the men's and women's singles competition each receiving A$1,281,000. Over 500 players...

, advancing to the second round defeating Australian Peter Luczak

Peter Luczak

Peter Luczak is a professional tennis player for Australia. His career-high ATP Entry ranking was No. 64 on 12 October 2009.At the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in Delhi, Luczak won the gold in the doubles....

 before losing to fellow American James Blake

James Blake

James Riley Blake is an American professional tennis player. Blake is known for his speed and powerful, flat forehand. As of August 2011, Blake is ranked no. 63 among active male players with 24 career finals appearances...

, 6–4, 6–1, 6–2. Kuznetsov gave Blake a scare by breaking Blake on Blake's first two service games.

In 2006, Kuznetsov appeared in the video game Top Spin 2

Top Spin 2

Top Spin 2 is a 2006 tennis video game developed by Indie Built and originally published by 2K Sports. It is the sequel to Top Spin and is followed by Top Spin 3.-Players:...

 as an up-and-coming star.

2007

In the 2007 US Open he played doubles with American Jesse Levine

Jesse Levine

Jesse Levine is a Canadian-born American professional tennis player. He achieved his career-high singles rank of No. 94 on November 3, 2008....

. They won their first round match over Dominik Hrbatý

Dominik Hrbatý

Dominik Hrbatý is a retired professional tennis player from Slovakia.-Personal life:Hrbatý was born on 4 January 1978 in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. His father was an architecture engineer and his younger brother is an umpire...

 of Slovakia and Harel Levy

Harel Levy

Har'el Levy is an Israeli professional male tennis player. Levy's best singles ranking was # 30 in the world in 2001, and his best doubles ranking was # 76 in 2007....

 of Israel, 6–1, 6–4, and their second round match, upsetting 7th-seeded Frenchmen Arnaud Clément

Arnaud Clément

Arnaud Clément is a professional tennis player from France. His best achievement is reaching the final of the 2001 Australian Open.-Career:Clément was born in Aix-en-Provence, and currently lives in Geneva, Switzerland...

 and Michaël Llodra

Michaël Llodra

Michaël Llodra is a French professional tennis player. He is a prolific doubles player with three Grand Slam championships, and has also had success in singles.-Life and career:...

 7–6 (5), 6–4, before losing in the third round to 9th-seeded Czechs Lukáš Dlouhý

Lukáš Dlouhý

Lukáš Dlouhý is a professional Czech tennis player on the ATP Tour. A doubles specialist, Dlouhý reached a career-high ranking of World Number 5 on June 22, 2009.-2006-2008:...

 and Pavel Vízner

Pavel Vízner

Pavel Vízner is a professional male tennis player from the Czech Republic. Vízner has reached the French Open final twice, having had turned professional in 1990 and achieved a career high doubles ranking of World Number 5 on September 10, 2007.- Career :While Vízner had played tournaments in 1988...

, 6–4, 7–5.

The USTA asked Kuznetsov and two other young American men to play off in late December for the wild-card

Wild card (sports)

The term wild card refers broadly to a tournament or playoff berth awarded to an individual or team that has not qualified through normal play.-International sports:...

 berth in the Australian Open

Australian Open

The Australian Open is the only Grand Slam tennis tournament held in the southern hemisphere. The tournament was held for the first time in 1905 and was last contested on grass in 1987. Since 1972 the Australian Open has been held in Melbourne, Victoria. In 1988, the tournament became a hard court...

 that the organization received in a reciprocal agreement with Tennis Australia

Tennis Australia

Tennis Australia is the governing body for the sport of Tennis in Australia. The organisation exists to promote tennis and conduct domestic and international tournaments on behalf of Australia, including the Australian Open and the Davis Cup for the Australian Davis Cup Team...

. The other players selected based on age (22 and under) and ranking (top 200) to compete in Boca Raton, Florida

Boca Raton, Florida

Boca Raton is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, USA, incorporated in May 1925. In the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 74,764; the 2006 population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 86,396. However, the majority of the people under the postal address of Boca Raton, about...

, were Levine and Wayne Odesnik

Wayne Odesnik

Wayne Odesnik is a professional left-handed American tennis player, with a two-handed backhand.His career-high in singles was # 77, as of April 13, 2009...

. They played in a round-robin

Round-robin

The term round-robin was originally used to describe a document signed by multiple parties in a circle to make it more difficult to determine the order in which it was signed, thus preventing a ringleader from being identified...

 format. Levine won the wild card.

External links

• The official website of Alex Kuznetsov