Jozef Kovalík (; born 4 November 1992) is a Slovak

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 playing mostly on 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 ...

Career

2010-2014

Kovalík together with

Filip Horanský Filip Horanský (; born 7 January 1993) is a tennis player from Slovakia. Junior career Filip, with partner Jiří Veselý, won the 2011 Boys Doubles Australian Open. He also won the bronze medal in doubles at 2010 Summer Youth Olympics, part ...

won bronze medal in doubles at 2010 Summer Youth Olympics. He won his first title on 17 August 2014, after beating second seed Andrey Kuznetsov. He became the fourth player to win an ATP Challenger title while ranked outside the top 300.

2016

He played his first match at ATP level on 5 January 2016 in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

, where he lost in the first round. He played his first match at a Grand Slam on 18 January 2016 at the Australian Open, where he lost to fellow qualifier

Marco Trungelliti Marco Trungelliti (; born 31 January 1990) is an Argentine professional tennis player and competes mainly on the ATP Challenger Tour and ITF Futures, both in singles and doubles. On 4 March 2019, Trungelliti achieved his best singles rankings o ...

in the first round. At the

2016 BNP Paribas Open The 2016 BNP Paribas Open (also known as the 2016 Indian Wells Masters) was a professional tennis tournament played at Indian Wells, California in March 2016. It was the 43rd edition of the men's event and 28th of the women's event, and was class ...

Kovalík won his first match at ATP level, defeating another qualifier

Pierre-Hugues Herbert Pierre-Hugues Herbert (; born 18 March 1991) is a French professional tennis player. In doubles, he has completed the Career Grand Slam with titles at the 2015 US Open, the 2016 Wimbledon Championships, the 2018 French Open, the 2021 French O ...

in the first round. He lost in two tight tie-breaks in the subsequent round, to fellow up-and-coming talent

Dominic Thiem Dominic Thiem (; born 3 September 1993) is an Austrian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals, which he first achieved in March 2020. He is the second-highest ...

. Despite the loss his tennis was of an extremely high quality. Kovalík was able to win cheap points off his first serve, utilised an effective kicking second serve, and consistently hit his groundstrokes with great accuracy, power and depth. In addition he remained mentally composed on key points and played intelligent tennis throughout. During the match he was watched by fellow Slovak and coach of Novak Djokovic, Marian Vajda. Kovalík won the

2016 Capri Watch Cup The 2016 Capri Watch Cup was a professional tennis tournament played on clay courts. It was the 19th edition of the tournament which was part of the 2016 ATP Challenger Tour. It took place in Naples, Italy between 4 April and 10 April 2016. Singl ...

, his second title on the ATP Challenger Tour.

2018

At the 2018 Sofia Open he had his best ATP tournament, reaching the semifinals and losing to

Marius Copil Marius Copil (born 17 October 1990) is a Romanian professional tennis player playing on the ATP World Tour and ATP Challenger Tour. He is a member of the Romanian Davis Cup team. Copil is known for his extremely fast, powerful, and consistent ...

in straight sets, 6–4, 6–2. Kovalík reached another ATP level semifinal at

2018 German Open The 2018 German Open (also known as the 2018 German Tennis Championships) was a men's tennis tournament played on outdoor red clay courts. It was the 112th edition of the German Open Tennis Championships and part of the ATP World Tour 500 series ...

in Hamburg, where he lost to the defending champion

Leonardo Mayer Leonardo Martín Mayer (; ''Mayer'' locally or , ; born May 15, 1987) is a former professional tennis player from Argentina. Mayer achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 21 in June 2015 and world No. 48 in doubles in January 2019. ...

. After this tournament Kovalík moved into Top 100 for the first time.

Performance timelines

Singles

''Current through the 2022 Qatar ExxonMobil Open.''

Doubles

''Current through the 2022 Melbourne Summer Set 1.''

Challenger and Futures finals

Singles 25 (14–11)

Doubles

Wins over top 10 players

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kovalik, Jozef 1992 births Living people Tennis players from Bratislava Slovak male tennis players Tennis players at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics 21st-century Slovak people