Alex Bogdanovic was born on 22 May 1984 in Belgrade and moved to Britain at the age of 8. It was in London where he first picked up a racket and, despite it being traditionally a late age for a professional to start, it soon became apparent he had a natural ability for the game.
Sponsored by the LTA & Rover in his early years, he soon found success on the junior circuit, reaching the semi finals of the US Open Juniors and achieving a career high of 8 in the world.
Alex won his first professional title in February 2002, at a Futures event in Nottingham. This is his only Futures title so far because he moved onto the Challenger circuit as soon as his ranking enabled him to and has now picked up 9 Challenger titles. They include his most recent victory in Kolding, Denmark when Ivan Dodig was disqualified for verbally abusing an official. Alex has now won at least one Challenger title a year for the last 6 years and has an enviable record in Challenger finals, having won 9 and lost only 4.
Unfortunately, the success at challenger level has never been transformed into success at ATP level, and despite pushing top players close on several occasions (the most notable being getting to within 2 points of beating Andy Roddick in a 2nd set TB in the 3rd round at Queens in 2007, a Hawkeye overrule denying him match point), he has never been able to put together consistent performances on the ATP tour and as a result has been unable to build on his obvious talent, with his highest ranking so far being 108.
In his home country, Alex is most (in)famous for never winning a match at Wimbledon, despite being given wild cards on 8 occasions; he has played (and lost to) Nicolas Escude, Sargis Sargsian, Roger Federer, Kevin Kim, Rafael Nadal, Chris Guccione, Simone Bolelli & Tomas Berdych. Add to this losses in all of his Davis Cup live rubbers (vs Leyton Hewitt, Noam Okun x 2, Agustin Calleri, Jurgen Melzer & Alexander Peya) and he does not have a very good reputation as a big match player, culminating with his exclusion from the GB Davis Cup team.
On court, Alex has a quiet personality, never letting his emotions rise to the surface regardless of how the match is progressing, although unfortunately this is often taken as a sign of not caring when he is losing. He is a left hander and plays with an accomplished all round game, his favourite tactic being to use his serve to push his opponent out wide opening the court for a forehand winner.
His best shot is his single-handed backhand, a shot which (when working) is a joy to behold, and one that has been compared to the great Rod Laver's. His favourite surface is still indoor courts, however in recent years he has also had more success on the outdoor hard courts in North America and really his game, as with most Brits, is only lacking on clay courts.
What does the future hold for Alex? It's hard to say - he has shown over the years that he has the ability to beat top players, and includes win over Johansson, Baghdatis, Schuettler, HT Lee, Zverev, Kunitsyn & O Rochus in his resume. The main challenge has been finding a way to get consistent results throughout the year. If he is able to do that then a spot in the world top 100 would surely beckon, and with the confidence boost such a breakthrough would provide he may be able to push even higher.
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Alex Bogdanovic - player's profile
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