Nikoloz Basilashvili

Nikoloz Basilashvili
ნიკოლოზ ბასილაშვილი

Basilashvili at the 2018 French Open
Country (sports)	Georgia
Residence	Tbilisi, Georgia
Born	(1992-02-23) 23 February 1992 (age 29) Tbilisi, Georgia
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Turned pro	2008
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Coach	Jan De Witt (former)
Prize money	$6,267,088
Singles
Career record	121–132 (47.8% in Grand Slam and ATP World Tour main draw matches, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles	5
Highest ranking	No. 16 (27 May 2019)
Current ranking	No. 40 (18 Aug 2021)[1]
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	3R (2018, 2019)
French Open	3R (2017)
Wimbledon	3R (2015)
US Open	4R (2018)
Other tournaments
Olympic Games	3R (2021)
Doubles
Career record	11–41 (21.2% in Grand Slam and ATP World Tour main draw matches, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 148 (27 May 2019)
Current ranking	No. 350 (24 May 2021)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	1R (2018, 2021)
French Open	2R (2018)
Wimbledon	1R (2017, 2021)
US Open	1R (2017)
Team competitions
Davis Cup	10–7 (58.8%)
Last updated on: 14 June 2021.

Nikoloz Basilashvili (Georgian: ნიკოლოზ ბასილაშვილი, romanized: nik'oloz basilashvili, pronounced [nikʼɔlɔz bɑsilɑʃvili];^[2] born 23 February 1992) is a Georgian professional tennis player. He reached a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 16 on 27 May 2019.

In July 2018, he made it into the main draw of the German Open in Hamburg as a qualifier and went on to win the tournament, defeating Leonardo Mayer in the final, thereby becoming the first Georgian player since Alex Metreveli to win an ATP tournament. In October 2018, Basilashvili won his second ATP title at the China Open by defeating world No. 4 Juan Martín del Potro in the final. In 2019, Basilashvili completed his first title defense by winning the German Open for a second successive year.

Personal life[]

Basilashvili was born 23 February 1992 in Tbilisi, Georgia. His father, Nodar, is a dancer of the Sukhishvili Georgian National Ballet, his mother, Natalia, worked as a physician.^[3] He has a brother, Tengiz. Apart from his native language he also speaks Russian and English.^[4]

Basilashvili started playing tennis at age 5. From 2007 to 2011 he was coached in Sacramento, CA, United States. When he was 15 his family moved to Russia. In 2011, Basilashvili announced that he may play for Russia, but decided to keep playing under the Georgian flag.^[5]

He has a son, Lukas who was born in 2015. On May 24, 2020 Basilashvili was arrested on domestic violence charge. He allegedly had assaulted his former wife Neka Dorokashvili in front of a minor. Tbilisi city court decided to bail him out paying 100,000 GEL. The preliminary court date is set for 16 July.^[6] Basilashvili denies the charges and intends to sue his former wife for defamation.^[7]

Wikinews has related news: Georgian tennis player Nikoloz Basilashvili arrested on domestic violence charge

Career[]

Junior career[]

Nikoloz did not play at any Grand Slams during his junior career. He reached a career high combined (singles and doubles) of world No. 59 on 5 January 2009. He ended his junior career with a 35–22 record on singles and 14–17 on doubles.^[8]

Basilashvili played in his first ITF Junior Circuit tournament in late 2006 at the G2 Jerry Simmons Tournament. He lost in the first qualifying round.^[9] In 2007, he managed to break through the qualifying of two G4 tournaments in Israel and a G3 in Romania. Nikoloz lost in the Round of 16 in all of them. Later that year, he reached his first semifinal at any junior tournament doing that in doubles for the first time at the US Junior Hard Court Championships, partnering Patrick Daciek. In singles, he reached that round at the G4 USTA Illinois losing to Filip Krajinovic, in September.^[10][11]

In 2008, Nikoloz won his only junior title, the G4 Tennis Express tournament, defeating Raymond Sarmiento in three sets. The Georgian played mostly at G1 and GA tournaments that year, breaking through the qualifiers of the Eddie Herr Tennis Championship and the Orange Bowl. He reached the round of 16 in the former and the quarterfinals in the latter. The Orange Bowl was his last junior tournament.^[12]

Professional career[]

2015: Grand Slam debut[]

In 2015, he qualified for his first Grand Slam tournament – Roland Garros, losing in the first round to Thanasi Kokkinakis. He also managed to qualify for Wimbledon later that year, where he beat Facundo Bagnis and 15th seed Feliciano López, advancing to the third round of a major for the first time in his career. Additionally, he managed to qualify for the US Open, where he lost to Feliciano López in the first round in straight sets.

2016: First ATP final[]

In 2016, he qualified for his first Australian Open, losing the first round in straight sets to Roger Federer. Later that same year, in July, Basilashvili reached his first ATP tournament final – the Austrian Open Kitzbühel, where he lost to Paolo Lorenzi in two sets. He recorded his first win over a Top 10 player in October when he defeated world number 10 Tomáš Berdych at the Vienna Open.

2017: Second ATP final[]

In February 2017, Basilashvili participated at the Sofia event, grabbing victories over Adrian Mannarino, 1st seed Dominic Thiem and 8th seed Martin Kližan, before losing to 3rd seed and eventual champion Grigor Dimitrov in the semifinals. Basilashvili continued his good form at the Memphis Open, where he defeated 1st seed Ivo Karlović and went on to subsequently reach the final, losing to Ryan Harrison in straight sets. In June 2017, Basilashvili achieved a then career-high singles ranking of World No. 51. He reached three semifinals and one final throughout the year. At the 2017 French Open, after defeating Gilles Simon and Viktor Troicki, Basilashvili lost to eventual champion Rafael Nadal in the third round, winning just one game in three sets. Afterwards, the defeat was described as "embarrassing".^[13]

2018: First and second ATP titles, Top 50 debut, Historical career-high ranking by a Georgian player[]

In July 2018, he made it into the main draw of the German Open in Hamburg as a qualifier and went on to win the tournament, defeating Leonardo Mayer 6–4, 0–6, 7–5 in the final and becoming the first Georgian player since Alex Metreveli to win an ATP tournament. After winning his first title, Basilashvili moved to World No. 35 in the world standings, his highest ever singles ranking and also the highest ever by a player from Georgia in the post-Soviet era. In October 2018, he won his second ATP title by upsetting top seed Juan Martín del Potro in the final of the China Open. In December in Doha, he lost to Novak Djokovic in three sets after beating Albert Ramos Viñolas and Andrey Rublev.

2019: Top 20 debut, Third ATP title[]

In 2019, he lost in four sets to the later semifinalist Stefanos Tsitsipas at the Australian Open after beating two qualifiers in four and five sets. At the ATP 500 tournament in Rotterdam in February, as the 9th seed, he beat Hyeon Chung before losing to Márton Fucsovics. His performance earned him his career-high ranking of World No. 19. He then played the 2019 Dubai Tennis Championships where he beat Karen Khachanov and Roberto Bautista Agut before falling to Borna Coric of Croatia. At 2019 Indian Wells Masters he suffered an upset to Prajnesh Gunneswaran of India.

At the 2019 US Open Basilashvili defeated Márton Fucsovics from Hungary in the first round and qualifier Jenson Brooksby in the second round before losing to another qualifier, the German Dominik Koepfer in the third.

2020[]

At the 2020 Australian Open, Basilashvili lost in the second round to Fernando Verdasco in 4 sets.

At the 2020 US Open, he lost in the first round to John Millman.

2021: Fourth and fifth title[]

In the 2021 Qatar Open, Basilashvili defeated John Millman and Malek Jaziri in three sets apiece before defeating world no. 6 Roger Federer in the quarterfinal. His semifinal win against Taylor Fritz in straight sets earned him his sixth ATP final against Roberto Bautista Agut, whom he defeated to win the title.

Basilashvili also won the title in Munich without dropping a set, after defeating Thiago Monteiro, Daniel Elahi Galán, Norbert Gombos, second seed Casper Ruud, and 7th seed Jan-Lennard Struff.

Performance timelines[]

Singles[]

Current through the end of 2021 Western & Southern Open

ATP career finals[]

Singles: 7 (5 titles, 2 runners-up)[]

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	0–1	Jul 2016	Austrian Open Kitzbühel, Austria	250 Series	Clay	Paolo Lorenzi	3–6, 4–6
Loss	0–2	Feb 2017	Memphis Open, United States	250 Series	Hard (i)	Ryan Harrison	1–6, 4–6
Win	1–2	Jul 2018	German Open, Germany	500 Series	Clay	Leonardo Mayer	6–4, 0–6, 7–5
Win	2–2	Oct 2018	China Open, China	500 Series	Hard	Juan Martín del Potro	6–4, 6–4
Win	3–2	Jul 2019	Hamburg European Open, Germany (2)	500 Series	Clay	Andrey Rublev	7–5, 4–6, 6–3
Win	4–2	Mar 2021	Qatar Open, Qatar	250 Series	Hard	Roberto Bautista Agut	7–6(7–5), 6–2
Win	5–2	May 2021	Bavarian Championships, Germany	250 Series	Clay	Jan-Lennard Struff	6–4, 7–6(7–5)

ATP Challenger & ITF Futures finals[]

Singles: 20 (15 titles, 5 runner–ups)[]

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Aug 2009	Russia F6, Sochi	Futures	Clay	Mikhail Fufygin	2–6, 7–5, 7–5
Win	2–0	Jun 2012	Russia F8, Kazan	Futures	Clay	Ivan Sergeyev	6–4, 7–6(7–4)
Loss	2–1	Jul 2012	Armenia F1, Yerevan	Futures	Clay	Arthur De Greef	0–6, 1–6
Loss	2–2	Aug 2012	Russia F11, Moscow	Futures	Clay	Boy Westerhof	4–6, 4–6
Win	3–2	Aug 2012	Russia F12, Moscow	Futures	Clay	Alexander Lobkov	6–3, 7–6(7–0)
Win	4–2	Sep 2012	Georgia F2, Tbilisi	Futures	Clay	Toni Androić	6–3, 4–6, 7–6(7–1)
Win	5–2	Dec 2012	Turkey F47, Antalya	Futures	Hard	Volodymyr Uzhylovskyi	3–6, 6–2, 6–2
Win	6–2	Dec 2012	Turkey F48, Antalya	Futures	Hard	Guillermo Olaso	6–2, 6–2
Win	7–2	Aug 2013	Italy F21, Appiano	Futures	Clay	Matteo Trevisan	7–5, 3–6, 6–4
Loss	7–3	Nov 2013	Turkey F44, Antalya	Futures	Hard	Robin Kern	6–4, 3–6, 3–6
Loss	7–4	Nov 2013	Turkey F45, Antalya	Futures	Clay	Marc Rath	1–6, 3–6
Win	8–4	Jan 2014	GermanyF3, Kaarst	Futures	Carpet (i)	Miloslav Mečíř	2–6, 7–5, 6–3
Win	9–4	May 2014	Qarshi, Uzbekistan	Challenger	Hard	Chase Buchanan	7–6(7–2), 6–2
Loss	9–5	Nov 2014	Andria, Italy	Challenger	Carpet (i)	Ričardas Berankis	4–6, 0–1 ret.
Win	10–5	Dec 2014	Qatar F5, Doha	Futures	Hard	Ramkumar Ramanathan	7–6(7–5), 6–2
Win	11–5	Dec 2014	Qatar F6, Doha	Futures	Hard	James Marsalek	6–1, 6–2
Win	12–5	Mar 2015	Raanana, Israel	Challenger	Hard	Lukáš Lacko	4–6, 6–4, 6–3
Win	13–5	Jul 2015	The Hague, Netherlands	Challenger	Clay	Andrey Kuznetsov	6–7(3–7), 7–6(7–4), 6–3
Win	14–5	Mar 2016	Guangzhou, China	Challenger	Hard	Lukáš Lacko	6–1, 6–7(6–8), 7–5
Win	15–5	May 2016	Heilbronn, Germany	Challenger	Clay	Jan-Lennard Struff	6–4, 7–6(7–3)

Doubles: 6 (2 titles, 4 runner–ups)[]

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Mar 2010	ITF McAllen, USA	Futures	Hard	Chen Ti	Jared Easton Matheson Klein	7–5, 4–6, [10–4]
Loss	1–1	Feb 2011	ITF Brownsville, USA	Futures	Hard	Boris Nicola Bakalov	Devin Britton Greg Ouellette	1–6, 3–6
Loss	1–2	Nov 2013	ITF Antalya, Turkey	Futures	Clay	Miljan Zekić	Tom Schonenberg Matthias Wunner	0–6, 4–6
Loss	1–3	Dec 2013	ITF Doha, Qatar	Futures	Hard	Yahor Yatsyk	Evan Hoyt Skander Mansouri	4–6, 6–7(2–7)
Win	2–3	Jan 2014	ITF Kaarst, Germany	Futures	Carpet (i)	Alexander Bury	Uladzimir Ignatik Dimitar Kutrovsky	4–6, 6–4, [10–6]
Loss	2–4	Apr 2015	Napoli Cup, Italy	Challenger	Clay	Alexander Bury	Ilija Bozoljac Filip Krajinović	1–6, 2–6

Record against top 10 players[]

Basilashvili's match record against those who have been ranked in the top 10, with those who have been No. 1 in bold (ATP World Tour, Grand Slam and Davis Cup main draw matches).

* As of 16 August 2021

Wins over top 10 players[]

• He has a 5–17 (22.7%) record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10.

#	Player	Rank	Event	Surface	Rd	Score	NB Rank
2016
1.	Tomáš Berdych	10	Vienna Open, Austria	Hard (i)	1R	6–4, 6–7(5–7), 7–5	107
2017
2.	Dominic Thiem	8	Sofia Open, Bulgaria	Hard (i)	2R	6–4, 6–4	87
2018
3.	Juan Martín del Potro	4	China Open, China	Hard	F	6–4, 6–4	34
2019
4.	Alexander Zverev	5	German Open, Germany	Clay	SF	6–4, 4–6, 7–6(7–5)	16
2021
5.	Roger Federer	6	Qatar Open, Qatar	Hard	QF	3–6, 6–1, 7–5	42

* As of 9 February 2021

Davis Cup matches[]

2015 Davis Cup Europe Group III
Round	Date	Opponents	Final match score	Location	Surface	Match	Opponent	Rubber Score
RR	July 15, 2015	Albania	3–0	San Marino	Clay	Singles 2	Rel Pelushi	6–0, 6–0 (W)
RR	July 17, 2015	Malta	3–0	San Marino	Clay	Singles 2	Bernard Cassar Torregiani	6–1, 6–0 (W)
Play-off	July 18, 2015	Estonia	2–0	San Marino	Clay	Singles 2	Jürgen Zopp	3–6, 6–2, 6–4 (W)
2016 Davis Cup Europe/Africa Zone Group II
Round	Date	Opponents	Final match score	Location	Surface	Match	Opponent	Rubber Score
1R	March 4–6, 2016	Denmark	0–5	Tbilisi	Carpet (indoor)	Singles 1	Christian Sigsgaard	7–6(7–4), 1–6, 4–6, 4–6 (L)
						Doubles (with George Tsivadze)	Sigsgaard/Nielsen	6–7(3–7), 1–6, 2–6 (L)
Play-off	July 15–17, 2016	Zimbabwe	3–2	Tbilisi	Hard	Singles 2	Mark Fynn	6–3, 6–3, 6–2 (W)
						Doubles (with Nodar Itonishvili)	Lock/John Lock	6–3, 6–3, 6–7(6–8), 4–6, 4–6 (L)
						Singles 3	Benjamin Lock	6–3, 6–4, 6–2 (W)
2017 Davis Cup Europe/Africa Zone Group II
Round	Date	Opponents	Final match score	Location	Surface	Match	Opponent	Rubber Score
1R	February 3–5, 2017	Finland	3–2	Tbilisi	Carpet (indoor)	Singles 1	Eero Vasa	2–6, 6–1, 6–4, 6–1 (W)
						Doubles (with George Tsivadze)	Heliövaara/Niklas-Salminen	4–6, 0–6, 3–6 (L)
						Singles 3	Emil Ruusuvuori	6–2, 6–4, 6–4 (W)
2R	April 7–9, 2017	Lithuania	2–3	Tbilisi	Hard	Singles 1	Tadas Babelis	6–3, 6–2, 6–0 (W)
						Doubles (with George Tsivadze)	Grigelis/Mugevičius	4–6, 3–6, 3–6 (L)
						Singles 3	Laurynas Grigelis	6–0, 6–1, 6–0 (W)
2018 Davis Cup Europe/Africa Zone Group II
Round	Date	Opponents	Final match score	Location	Surface	Match	Opponent	Rubber Score
1R	February 3–4, 2017	Morocco	1–3	Marrakech	Clay	Singles 2	Amine Ahouda	6–3, 3–6, 3–6 (L)
						Doubles (with Aleksandre Metreveli)	Ahouda/Ouahab	7–6(7–4), 4–6, 6–2 (W)
						Singles 3	Lamine Ouahab	1–6, 3–6 (L)

References[]

External links[]

• Nikoloz Basilashvili at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Nikoloz Basilashvili at the International Tennis Federation
• Nikoloz Basilashvili at the Davis Cup