Knoxville, Monday the 4th of November, 2019. We are here at Knoxville’s Challenger tournament with Aleksander Kovacevic, the 21-year-old American, who has already won his first-round match. Aleks sat down with Tennis Acumen's Karl Corbett for an exclusive interview.
Karl: Aleks, it's hard for me to find, over the last two years, a point where you lost your first match two weeks in a row. So, you're playing a lot. You're getting a lot of work out there.
Aleks: Yeah. A big thing that I have been improving on is being consistent week to week, which is really important, especially on the Futures tour . The last five Futures I've played, I haven't lost before the semi-finals. That's just a big confidence boost, to know that I will be there every week, to know that I can be there and compete and go farther in the tournament. Today, this was a test, at Challenger level. I had not actually won a match at Challenger level yet. This is my first one today.
Karl: It really was a lot of work, at 7-5, 7-5. What was your inspiration to get into the game to begin with, Aleks?
Aleks: I grew up in New York City, Upper West Side. My parents were Ping-Pong pros, both of them . We had a table in our basement. My parents had a little apartment when I was growing up, about a five-minute walk from the Central Park Tennis courts. So, my parents started to play tennis on the weekends, and sometimes I'd go with them. When I was still very young, I started playing with them and they put me into lessons there in Central Park. And what's interesting is this: now that I live in Illinois, going to school there, and now that I have traveled, playing tennis all over the USA, I sometimes forget how special it was... that I started playing tennis in Central Park, New York City.
Karl: I love that.
Aleks: I just didn't realize that this was just not a normal thing. It was my life, and it was special. When I was 15, I moved to Boca Raton, Florida, because it’s a little strange trying to find court time in the middle of Manhattan. To play serious tennis, well... It's really hard to find players to practice with. It's just not as ' tennis friendly' as, let's say, Boca which is where I live now. You can walk down any street, and there are tennis courts everywhere.
This is part 1 of a 3-part interview. Stay tuned for more.
For more on Kovacevic's match play in Knoxville, visit here: (LINK)
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