Alex Kim (born December 20, 1978) is a 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 from the United States.

Early career

In the 1996 US Open, Kim and Mexico's Mariano Sánchez made the boys' doubles semi-finals, where they lost to the

Bryan brothers The Bryan brothers, identical twin brothers Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan, are retired American professional doubles tennis players and the most successful duo of all time. They were born on April 29, 1978, with Mike being the elder by two minutes. ...

. He began playing collegiate tennis in 1998, for

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

.ATP World Tour Profile
/ref> The American was a member of the championship winning Stanford sides of 1998 and 2000. In the latter year, he also won the NCAA Division 1 singles title and was an All-American. He and teammate Geoff Abrams formed the top-ranked doubles team in the nation in 2000, and were named the ITA National Doubles Team of the Year. He was inducted into the Stanford Athletic Hall of Fame in 2011.

ATP Tour

Given a wildcard entry, Kim made his first

Grand Slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

appearance in 2000, at the US Open. He had the misfortune of being drawn against world number one

Andre Agassi Andre Kirk Agassi ( ; born April 29, 1970) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He is an eight-time major champion and an Olympic gold medalist, as well as a runner-up in seven other majors. Agassi is the second of five men to ach ...

in the first round and lost in straight sets. In June 2000, he won the doubles title with Geoff Abrams at the USTA Chandler Cup Futures. The next time that he played in a Grand Slam event, the

2002 Australian Open The 2002 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts at Melbourne Park in Melbourne in Australia. It was the 90th edition of the Australian Open and was held from 14 through 27 January 2002 and attracted an attendance of ...

, he put in the best performance of his career, starting with an opening round win over

Davide Sanguinetti Davide Sanguinetti (; born 25 August 1972) is an Italian former professional male tennis player. Personal life Born in Viareggio in Tuscany, he attended the Harry Hopman academy in Florida and then UCLA. He now resides in Monte Carlo. Tennis ...

. Despite being ranked outside of the world's top 200, Kim managed to defeat fourth seed

Yevgeny Kafelnikov Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Kafelnikov ( rus, Евгений Александрович Кафельников, , jɪvˈɡʲenʲɪj ˈkafʲɪlʲnʲɪkəf, a=Ru-Yevgeny-Kafelnikov.ogg; born 18 February 1974) is a Russian former world No. 1 tennis p ...

in the second round, without dropping a set. In the third round, he was eliminated by the only other qualifier remaining in the draw,

Fernando González Fernando Francisco González Ciuffardi (; born 29 July 1980) is a Chilean former professional tennis player. During his career he made it to at least the quarterfinals of all four Grand Slam tournaments. He played his only major final at the ...

. He also played at the US Open in 2002, but lost in the first round to

Greg Rusedski Gregory Rusedski (born 6 September 1973) is a British and Canadian former tennis player. He was the British No. 1 in 1997, 1999 and 2006, and reached the ATP ranking of world No. 4 for periods from 6 October 1997 to 12 October 1997 and from 25 ...

. In Washington's

Legg Mason Tennis Classic The Washington Open (known as the Citi Open for sponsorship reasons) is an annual hardcourt tennis tournament played at the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center in Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C. The Washington Open is part of the ATP Tour 5 ...

that year, he claimed a win over another big name player, 10th seed

Todd Martin Todd Martin (born July 8, 1970) is an American retired tennis player. He reached the men's singles final at the 1994 Australian Open and the 1999 US Open and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 4. Playing career Martin was bor ...

. He was unable to get past

Jarkko Nieminen Jarkko Kalervo Nieminen (born 23 July 1981) is a Finnish former professional tennis player. His highest ranking of world No. 13, achieved in July 2006, is a Finnish record. He has won two ATP singles titles and five doubles titles in his caree ...

in the round of 16. In 2003, he played in three

tournaments, but lost in the opening round of each. He was beaten by

Scott Draper Scott Dennis Draper (born 5 June 1974) is an Australian former tennis player and golfer. He won the Australian Open Mixed Doubles with Samantha Stosur in 2005. Draper also reached the fourth round of the 1995 and 1996 French Opens, and the four ...

in the

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...

, squandered a two set lead in losing to

Mark Philippoussis Mark Anthony Philippoussis ( ; born 7 November 1976) is an Australian former professional tennis player of Greek and Italian descent. Philippoussis' greatest achievements are winning two Davis Cup titles with Australia in 1999 and 2003, winni ...

in 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 was defeated by

Younes El Aynaoui Younes El Aynaoui ( ar, يونس العيناوي) (born 12 September 1971) is a former professional tennis player from Morocco. He is a five-time singles winner on the ATP Tour and reached his career-high singles ranking of world No. 14 in Mar ...

in the US Open. Kim was a joint bronze medalist in the men's singles event at the

2003 Pan American Games The 2003 Pan American Games were held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, from August 1 to 17, 2003. The successful bid for the games was made in the mid-1990s, when Dominican Republic had one of the highest growth rates in Latin America. Al ...

, which were held in the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

. He lost in the semi-finals to

Marcelo Ríos Marcelo Andrés Ríos Mayorga (; born 26 December 1975) is a Chilean former world No. 1 tennis player. Nicknamed ''"El Chino"'' ("The Chinese") and ''"El zurdo de Vitacura"'' ("The Lefty from Vitacura"), he became the first Latin American play ...

, in a match decided by two tiebreaks. As a doubles player, Kim competed in the 2002 US Open with

Kevin Kim Kevin Kim (born July 26, 1978) is an American retired tennis player. Career He entered the top 100 in 2004, reaching a career-high singles ranking of World No. 63 in March 2005. In 1993, Kim won the USTA National Boys' 16 Indoor Doubles Champi ...

(who is of no relation) and with

Jeff Salzenstein Jeff "Salzy" Salzenstein (born October 14, 1973) is an American left-handed former professional tennis player. In 1986 he won the US Boys' 12 National Hard Court Tennis Singles Championship and Doubles Championship. His highest singles ranking wa ...

in the 2003 US Open. He and his partner lost in the first round of each.

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 9 (4–5)

Doubles: 3 (2–1)

Performance timeline

Singles

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kim, Alex 1978 births Living people American male tennis players Stanford Cardinal men's tennis players Tennis people from Maryland Tennis players at the 2003 Pan American Games Sportspeople from Delray Beach, Florida American sportspeople of Korean descent Pan American Games bronze medalists for the United States Pan American Games medalists in tennis Medalists at the 2003 Pan American Games