Aleksandar Vukic (, , ; born 6 April 1996) is an Australian professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player. Vukic has a career high ATP singles ranking of World No. 117 achieved on 28 February 2022. He also has a career high ATP doubles ranking of World No. 394 achieved on the same date. Vukic has won one

ITF Futures The ITF World Tennis Tour (formerly known as the ''ITF Men's World Tennis Tour'', and previously ''ITF Men's Circuit'') is a series of professional tennis tournaments held around the world that are organized by the International Tennis Federation. ...

singles title. Vukic made his main draw ATP singles debut at the

2018 Sydney International The 2018 Sydney International was a joint 2018 ATP World Tour and 2018 WTA Tour tennis tournament, played on outdoor hard courts in Sydney, New South Wales (NSW). It was the 126th edition of the tournament and took place at the NSW Tennis Centre ...

and his Grand Slam debut at the

2020 French Open The 2020 French Open was a Grand Slam (tennis), major tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was held at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. Originally scheduled for 24 May to 7 June, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was firs ...

, after qualifying for both.

Early life

Vukic was born in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, Australia. His parents and older brother left

Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = M ...

during the breakup of

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

in the early 1990s and settled in Sydney before Vukic was born. Vukic began playing tennis at the age of 6 and later attended the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

between 2015 and 2018 where he was named three-time All-American in tennis.

Professional career

2014–2019: ITF and ATP debut

Vukic made his ITF Tour debut in Spain in May 2014. Vukic made his main draw ATP singles debut at the

, where he qualified for the main draw by defeating

Dušan Lajović Dušan Lajović ( sr-cyrl, Душан Лајовић; born 30 June 1990) is a Serbian professional tennis player. Lajović has won one singles and two doubles titles on the ATP Tour. On 29 April 2019, Lajović reached his career-high singles rank ...

and

Ričardas Berankis Ričardas Berankis (; born June 21, 1990) is a Lithuanian professional tennis player. He is the first and only Lithuanian citizen (not counting Lithuanian American Vitas Gerulaitis) to enter the ATP top 50 rankings, making him the highest ranke ...

. He came within two points of defeating

Feliciano Lopez Feliciano may refer to: People *Feliciano (name), including a list of people with the name Places *San José de Feliciano, Argentine city *Feliciano River, river in Argentina *Estadio Feliciano Gambarte, stadium in Argentina *Dom Feliciano Dom F ...

, ranked 36 in the world. He lost the match 6–4, 6–7^(5–7), 3–6. In May 2019, Vukic reached the semi-final of the

2019 Savannah Challenger The 2019 Savannah Challenger was a professional tennis tournament played on clay courts. It was the eleventh edition of the tournament which was part of the 2019 ATP Challenger Tour. It took place in Savannah, Georgia, United States between 29 A ...

, his best performance at the

ATP Challenger Tour The ATP Challenger Tour, known until the end of 2008 as the ATP Challenger Series, is a series of international men's professional tennis tournaments. The Challenger Tour events are the second-highest tier of tennis competition, behind the ATP T ...

level. Following a quarter-final appearance at 2019 Internazionali di Tennis Città dell'Aquila, Vukic reached a career high singles ranking of 258.

2020: Grand Slam and top 200 debut

In January 2020, Vukic reached the final round of 2020 Australian Open – Men's singles qualifying. In March 2020, Vukic reached his first ATP Challenger Tour final in Monterrey Challenger. In September, Vukic qualified for the

main draw, where he made his Grand Slam singles debut. He lost in round one to

Pedro Martínez Pedro Jaime Martínez (born October 25, 1971) is a Dominican-American former professional baseball starting pitcher, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from to , for five teams—most notably the Boston Red Sox from to . At the time o ...

. Vukic ended 2020 with a singles ranking of World No. 196.

2021: First ATP Tour and Masters wins

Vukic commenced the 2021 season at the

2021 Great Ocean Road Open The 2021 Great Ocean Road Open was a tournament on the 2021 ATP Tour, one of six events in the 2021 Melbourne Summer Series. It was played on outdoor hard courts in Melbourne, Australia. It was organised as a lead-up tournament to the 2021 Austr ...

, where he defeated

Yen-Hsun Lu Lu Yen-hsun (; born 14 August 1983) is a Taiwanese retired professional tennis player, who goes by the nickname Rendy Lu. He won the most titles on the ATP Challenger Tour in tennis history. His favorite surface is hardcourt, though several of ...

for his first ATP main draw win. Vukic was defeated by

Jannik Sinner Jannik Sinner (; ; born 16 August 2001) is an Italian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 9 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), achieved on 1 November 2021, and world No. 124 in doubles, achieved on 2 ...

in the second round. At the

2021 Australian Open The 2021 Australian Open was a Grand Slam tennis tournament that took place at Melbourne Park, on 8–21 February 2021. It was the 109th edition of the Australian Open, the 53rd in the Open Era, and the first Major tournament of the year. It was ...

, Vukic entered into the main draw as a wildcard and lost to 19th seed

Karen Khachanov Karen Abgarovich Khachanov (russian: Каре́н Абга́рович Хача́нов; born 21 May 1996) is a Russian professional tennis player. Khachanov has won four ATP Tour singles titles, including a ATP Tour Masters 1000, Masters 1000 ti ...

in the first round. Vukic returned the ATP Challenger tour, achieving quarterfinal appearances in April at

Split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, enterta ...

and Split II. Vukic lost in the third and final round of qualifying for the

French Open The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...

and in the first round of qualifying for

Wimbledon Championships The Wimbledon Championships, commonly known simply as Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely regarded as the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, All England Club in ...

. In August 2021, Vukic tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and had to skip the US Open. On 20 September 2021, and following a semifinal result at the

Cary Challenger The Atlantic Tire Championships is a tennis tournament held in Cary, North Carolina, United States since 2015. The event is part of the ATP Challenger Tour and is played on outdoor hard courts. Past finals Singles Doubles Reference ...

, Vukic improved his ranking back to No. 214. At the

2021 BNP Paribas Open The 2021 BNP Paribas Open (also known as the 2021 Indian Wells Masters) was a professional men's and women's tennis tournament played in Indian Wells, California. After the event was cancelled the preceding year amid the beginning of the COVID-1 ...

he recorded his first main draw win at a Masters 1000 level as a qualifier defeating

Pablo Andujar Pablo is a Spanish form of the name Paul. People * Pablo Alborán, Spanish singer *Pablo Aimar, Argentine footballer *Pablo Armero, Colombian footballer * Pablo Bartholomew, Indian photojournalist *Pablo Brandán, Argentine footballer * Pablo Bren ...

. He followed this by a final also in singles at the

2021 Charlottesville Men's Pro Challenger The 2021 Charlottesville Men's Pro Challenger was a professional tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. It was the twelfth edition of the tournament which was part of the 2021 ATP Challenger Tour, taking place in Charlottesville, United St ...

where he lost to

Stefan Kozlov Stefan Kozlov (, ; born February 1, 1998) is an American professional tennis player of Russian descent. He has a career-high ATP ranking of world No. 103 achieved on 18 July 2022 and doubles ranking of world No. 180 on 19 June 2017. Kozlov m ...

. He reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 156 on 22 November 2021.

2022: First ATP quarterfinal & Major win, top 150 debut

At the Adelaide International 2, Vukic achieved his first top 50 win against

Alexander Bublik Alexander Stanislavovich "Sasha" Bublik (; born 17 June 1997) is a Russian-born Kazakhstani professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 30 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he achieved in ...

and reached his first ATP Tour-level quarterfinal, before losing to

Thanasi Kokkinakis Athanasios "Thanasi" Kokkinakis ( ; born 10 April 1996) is an Australian professional tennis player and a doubles specialist. He has been ranked as high as world No. 69 in singles by the ATP, which he first achieved on 8 June 2015. He has won o ...

. As a result, he made his top 150 debut at World No. 144 on 17 January 2022. Vukic was awarded a second wildcard into the

2022 Australian Open The 2022 Australian Open was a Grand Slam tennis tournament that took place at Melbourne Park, Australia from 17 to 30 January 2022. It was the 110th edition of the Australian Open, the 54th in the Open Era, and the first Grand Slam of the ye ...

. He defeated 30th seed Lloyd Harris in 4 sets for his first Grand Slam victory. He lost to qualifier

Radu Albot Radu Albot (born 11 November 1989) is a Moldovan professional tennis player. He is the first player from Moldova to win ATP singles ( 2019 Delray Beach Open) and doubles ( 2015 Istanbul Open) titles. Albot has won 1 ATP World Tour singles tit ...

in the second round. At the 2022 Sofia Open he defeated

Fabio Fognini Fabio Fognini (; born 24 May 1987) is an Italian professional tennis player. He has a career-high ranking of world No. 9 achieved on 15 July 2019. He is currently ranked (July 2022) in 64th place by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ...

and

Fernando Verdasco Fernando Verdasco Carmona (; born 15 November 1983) is a Spanish professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is world No. 7, achieved in April 2009. His best performance in a Grand Slam was making the semifinals of the 2009 ...

to reach only his second ATP quarterfinal.

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures/World Tennis Tour finals

Singles: 11 (2–9)

Doubles: 2 (0–2)

Performance timelines

Singles

''Current through the

2023 Australian Open The 2023 Australian Open was a Grand Slam level tennis tournament held at Melbourne Park, from 16–29 January 2023. It was the 111th edition of the Australian Open, the 55th in the Open Era, and the first major of the year. The tournament consi ...

. ''

References

External links

* *
Aleksandar Vukic
at

Illinois Fighting Illini The Illinois Fighting Illini () are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The university offers 10 men's and 11 women's varsity sports. The University operates a number of athletic faci ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vukic, Aleksandar 1996 births Living people Australian male tennis players Tennis players from Sydney Illinois Fighting Illini men's tennis players Australian people of Montenegrin descent