The ski trip that changed Shevchenko's life

Corinne Dubreuil/ATP Tour

Alexander Shevchenko used to dream of practising with one of the best players in the world. Not only has the 23-year-old become one of them himself, but he will have an opportunity to show the world his talents in the second round of the Mutua Madrid Open when he faces two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz.

“I think he didn’t watch all my matches but I did [his]. The guy is a big icon,” Shevchenko told ATPTour.com. “I think kids growing up should watch his attitude. He’s a super, super nice guy, always very friendly. For me it’s just another great experience to go out again in Manolo Santana playing one of the best tennis players in the world.”

Shevchenko is set to compete on one of the biggest stages in tennis, which ironically was not his first sport — football was. Following in the footsteps of legendary football striker Andriy Shevchenko, Alexander began playing football at five. “I thought I was quite good at it,” he recalled. 

His sister, Irina, is 10 years older than him. ‘Ira’ played tennis at Nikola Pilic’s tennis academy in Germany, where as a junior she practised with Novak Djokovic.

“My sister was playing, and then she didn't really like it. My parents, especially my mother, she wanted to have a tennis player in the family,” Shevchenko said. “I kind of liked football at the start. With my name, it's tough not to like it because of the legendary football player, so I wanted to play football. And then she said, 'Yeah, you have to try tennis. Just give it a try’.”

Just before his ninth birthday, Shevchenko finally gave in to trying tennis and has not looked back since.

“After [that] I liked to play, actually, and then it just went on and on, and then here I am,” Shevchenko said. “I liked that it was a sport where you're alone on the court. Basically it's all on you and then [time] just went by like that, and then I kept going and then I switched to tennis. I think that was the right pick in the end.”

^{Photo: ATP Tour/Getty Images}
When Shevchenko was 10, his family went on a ski trip to Kitzbühel, Austria. Coincidentally, they ran into a fitness coach who worked at the tennis academy of renowned coach Gunther Bresnik, who has mentored stars from Boris Becker to Dominic Thiem.

“They said if your son is a tennis player, you have to try it out,” Shevchenko said. “[Gunther] didn't want to pick me up at an early age. He said [I was] too young in age and then I came once. He said we can test, we can see. And then he said, I remember these words he said the first time we were playing: ‘You can be very, very good’. Then he took care of me nearly my entire career.”

It is no surprise that like Thiem, 23-year-old Shevchenko has developed a powerful baseline game, although he wields a heavy two-handed backhand compared to the Austrian’s one-hander.

Early on, his passion for football remained. But once Shevchenko began playing tournaments, he grew to love the competition. Then when he enjoyed early success leading into his teens, Shevchenko knew he wanted to become a professional. The Kazakhstani crossed paths with the likes of Matteo Arnaldi. But he did not crack the world’s Top 300 as a junior.

In the past year, however, he has quickly surged. Last April Shevchenko broke into the Top 100 in the PIF ATP Rankings for the first time and by November he moved into the Top 50. Some of the biggest victories of his career came against Holger Rune, Taylor Fritz, Karen Khachanov and Stan Wawrinka, and he reached his first ATP Tour final last November in Metz.

While he stopped working with Bresnik last year, he credits his success to the Austrian.

“Because of him, I'm here. I think he's one of the best coaches in the world,” Shevchenko said. “Especially if he builds up a player from the young age like he did with Dominic. He made Dominic a great, great champion in front of my eyes, and I have to be grateful that he made me who I am today.”

Shevchenko said of Thiem: “Obviously, he's way, way better than me in his prime. But I'm trying to catch up and it would be a dream for me to catch up and do maybe 50 per cent of his achievements that he did. It would be a dream.”

Off the court, there are plenty of interesting tidbits about the 23-year-old. As a teen, he played video games and began to edit highlights of his performances, creating montages. From that experience he became a good video editor and then also began making designs for YouTube banners and websites.

“[People] paid me when I was 14, 15 and then I used to make for them what they wanted, all the avatars, all the icons, all the thumbnails for their videos,” Shevchenko said. “As time is going now it's tough to keep it up. I still have my computer with me all the time. If there is one good offer, I can come back! But just no time to do that anymore.”

Fourteen months ago, Shevchenko met WTA star Anastasia Potapova, at the WTA tournament she won in Linz. Potapova is now his wife.

“We found love and then it's working out for us. Obviously, we can see each other a lot because of the tennis trips and everything. So it's a good relationship,” Shevchenko said. “At first I thought okay, I would never have a wife or a girlfriend who is in tennis because they do the same [thing], they play.

“But I was actually mistaken. It's better to have one that understands you [and knows] that you practise, that you need to rest sometimes, that you need to chill a little bit, that you don't need to talk about tennis... I feel like for us it was the best decision.”

No matter what happens when Shevchenko faces Alcaraz at the Caja Magica, he has already achieved more than he imagined as a kid with dreams of just practising with a world-class player. He has also earned the respect of his peers including former Top 10 star Gael Monfils, another former Bresnik protege.

“I think he's an extremely talented kid. The first time I played with him was in Tenerife with Gunther in preseason,” Monfils said. “I said, ‘Wow this kid has got big firepower and he's good’. I told him he is good, he is really good.

“I was happy to see him break through the Top 100, break through the Top 50 and I think he will go higher because for me, his potential is big. He is a big hitter on both sides, moving great on the court. We're talking about a next top guy.”

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