Alex Kim (tennis)

Alex Kim

Country (sports)	United States
Residence	Delray Beach, Florida
Born	December 20, 1978 Silver Spring, Maryland United States
Height	5'9" (175 cm)
Turned pro	2000
Plays	Right-handed
Prize money	$281,041
Singles
Career record	8–26
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 106 (June 10, 2002)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	3R (2002)
French Open	1R (2003)
US Open	1R (2000, 2002, 2003)
Doubles
Career record	0–5
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 264 (October 20, 2003)
Grand Slam Doubles results
US Open	1R (2002, 2003)

Alex Kim

Medal record
Representing  United States
Men's Tennis
Pan American Games
	2003 Santo Domingo	Men's Singles

Alex Kim (born December 20, 1978) is a professional tennis player from the United States.^[1]

Early career

In the 1996 US Open, Kim and Mexico's Mariano Sánchez made the boy's doubles semi-finals, where they lost to the Bryan brothers.^[2]

He began playing collegiate tennis in 1998, for Stanford University.^[3] The American was a member of the championship winning Stanford sides of 1998 and 2000.^[3] In the latter year he also won the NCAA Division 1 singles title and was an All-American.^[3] 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.^[4] He was inducted into the Stanford Athletic Hall of Fame in 2011.^[5]

ATP Tour

Given a wildcard entry, Kim made his first Grand Slam appearance in 2000, at the US Open.^[3] He had the misfortune of being drawn against world number one Andre Agassi in the first round and lost in straight sets.^[3] In June 2000, he won the doubles title with Geoff Abrams at the USTA Chandler Cup Futures.^[6]

The next time that he played in a Grand Slam event, the 2002 Australian Open, he put in the best performance of his career, starting with an opening round win over Davide Sanguinetti.^[3] Despite being ranked outside of the world's top 200, Kim managed to defeat fourth seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the second round, without dropping a set.^[7] In the third round he was eliminated by the only other qualifier remaining in the draw, Fernando Gonzalez.^[3]

He also played at the US Open in 2002, but lost in the first round to Greg Rusedski.^[3] In Washington's Legg Mason Tennis Classic that year, he claimed a win over another big name player, 10th seed Todd Martin.^[3] He was unable to get past Jarkko Nieminen in the round of 16.^[3]

In 2003 he played in three Grand Slam tournaments, but lost in the opening round of each.^[3] He was beaten by Scott Draper in the Australian Open, squandered a two set lead in losing to Mark Philippoussis in the French Open and was defeated by Younes El Aynaoui in the US Open.^[3]

Kim was a joint bronze medalist in the men's singles event at the 2003 Pan American Games, which were held in the Dominican Republic. He lost in the semi-finals to Marcelo Rios, in a match decided by two tiebreaks.

As a doubles player, Kim competed in the 2002 US Open with Kevin Kim (who is of no relation) and with Jeff Salzenstein in the 2003 US Open.^[3] He and his partner lost in the first round of each.^[3]

Challenger titles

Singles: (3)

No.	Year	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
1.	2001	Kerrville, United States	Hard	Mardy Fish	6–3, 3–6, 6–4
2.	2002	Birmingham, United States	Clay	Cecil Mamiit	7–6^(11–9), 6–2
3.	2003	Fresno, United States	Hard	Jeff Morrison	7–5, 7–6^(8–6)

Doubles: (1)

No.	Year	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score in the final
1.	2003	Seoul, South Korea	Hard	Hyung-Taik Lee	Alex Bogomolov, Jr. Jeff Salzenstein	1–6, 6–1, 6–4

References

1. ITF Pro Circuit Profile
2. ITF Junior Profile
3. ATP World Tour Profile
4. "Cunha, Hemmeler Named ITA Doubles Team of the Year". GoDuke.com. Retrieved November 13, 2013.
5. "Alex Kim". Stanford Athletic Hall of Fame. March 19, 2012.
6. Dasher, Anthony (May 19, 2001). "Soft-spoken standout". Online Athens. Retrieved November 13, 2013.
7. The Guardian, "Kafelnikov confounded by scattered seeds", January 16, 2002