Should Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov ever decide he’s not cut out for life on tour, his potential calling could be behind the wheel of a rally car.
Recognised as one of the newcomers of the year in men’s tennis last year, the 22 year old certainly has no plans to pull the plug on a hugely promising career any time soon but once you get the quietly spoken youngster to talk about his wheels there is no mistaking his off-court passion.
“I have a car that I prepared with guys back home. It’s a Subaru WRX STI but I ordered the motor from the US and parts from all over the world,” he said.
“The guys have got it up from 300hp to 500hp.”
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So any chance of trading in his racquets for a stint in rally-car racing?
“(Laughs) not really but it’s fun. I don’t really do much rallying,” Dolgopolov said.
“It’s actually pretty big in the Ukraine, but it’s more like street racing. They have tournaments for it.”
Brisbane crowds may remember Dolgopolov as the brilliantly gifted player with the long hair tied back, who enthralled onlookers with his explosive groundstrokes, soft touch and lightning speed on the outside courts at last year’s tournament.
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He had worked his way through three rounds of qualifying before wiping Australian young gun Bernard Tomic off the court in the first round and went close to upsetting then defending champion Radek Stepanek in his next match.
Today he will have a chance to go one better than last year when he faces current defending champion Andy Roddick at Pat Rafter Arena for a place in the quarterfinals.
“With my coach [Australian Jack Reader], we have worked a lot on the physical side in the past year so I’ve started playing a lot more consistently and serving better so I’m pretty comfortable on court,” he said.
“I like the surface, except I find it too hot sometimes.”
As the son of a former player, Oleksandr Snr, Dolgopolov began travelling the world for tennis at about age 12.
His father at one point coached Ukraine’s greatest player, Andrei Medvedev, a former French Open finalist.
“I was travelling a lot with them when I was small, I guess that’s why I started,” he said.
“When I was seven, eight years I could tell what everyone was ranked. I was really into it so that’s how I started playing.”
Medvedev would have been a likely choice as Dolgopolov’s idol growing up, but Dolgopolov singles out Chilean Marcelo Rios.
“Andrei was OK with it,” he laughs.
“I mean I was only a kid and I was always cheering for him anyway, so he didn’t really mind.
“I liked the way Rios played.”
Last year Dolgopolov claimed the scalps of Marcos Baghdatis, Nicolas Almagro, Mikhail Youzhny and Mardy Fish but it was his main-draw Grand Slam debut at the French Open where he signalled his intentions on the big stages.
In the first round he came from two sets to one down to stun French veteran and home-crowd favourite Arnaud Clement in five sets before slaying No.13 seed Chilean Fernando Gonzalez.
“I think the first round was actually a bigger moment for me because it was my first match in a Grand Slam and I played five sets,” he said.
“So yes, bigger than beating Gonzalez.”
Having only played a couple of grasscourt matches about five years ago, he then went on to reach the semifinals at Eastbourne and the second round at Wimbledon where he stretched French 10th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to 10-8 in the fifth set.
“That was the toughest match I had because it’s pretty unusual to move on the grass courts for me so I was really tired after the match,” he said.
To make matters worse, fatigue is not limited to Dolgopolov’s hours spent on court.
He has had a rare blood disorder since birth that can put him out of action and tends to be worse after crossing several time zones.
Fortunately though, Dolgopolov says he has felt fine since arriving in Brisbane with preparations on track for his Australian Open debut.
If he was to have an impressive run at the Open few back home would be glued to the television sets.
“There’s actually not one channel that translates tennis,” he said.
“So if the people want to watch it they have to buy a satellite to get the channels from Russia and that’s pretty expensive for the people in Ukraine.”
Tickets are still available for Brisbane International 2011 from Ticketek.