Nikoloz Basilashvili


Nikoloz Basilashvili is a Georgian professional tennis 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 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. He achieved a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 16 on 27 May 2019.

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. He has a brother, Tengiz. Apart from his native language he also speaks Russian and English.
Basilashvili started playing tennis at age 5. From 2007–2011 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 Georgian flag.
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. Basilashvili denies the charges and intends to sue his former wife for defamation.

Career

Junior career

Nikoloz did not play at any Grand Slams during his junior career. He reached a career high combined 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.
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.
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.
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.

Senior career

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.
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.
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 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.
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 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.
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, he beat Hyeon Chung and Márton Fucsovics before losing to 1st seed Kei Nishikori. His performance earned him his career-high ranking of 19. He then played the Dubai Duty-free championships where he beat Karen Khachanov and Roberto Bautista Agut before falling to Borna Coric of Croatia. At Indian Wells he suffered an upset to Prajnesh Gunnashwaren of India.
At the 2019 US Open Basilashvili defeated Márton Fucsovics from Hungary in the first round.

Performance timelines

Singles

Current through the suspension of the 2020 ATP Tour.

ATP career finals

Singles: 5 (3 titles, 2 runners-up)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScore
Loss0–12016 Generali Open Kitzbühel – Singles|Austrian Open Kitzbühel, Austria250 SeriesClay Paolo Lorenzi3–6, 4–6
Loss0–22017 Memphis Open – Singles|Memphis Open, United States250 SeriesHard Ryan Harrison1–6, 4–6
Win1–22018 German Open – Singles|German Open, Germany500 SeriesClay Leonardo Mayer6–4, 0–6, 7–5
Win2–22018 China Open – Men's Singles|China Open, China500 SeriesHard Juan Martín del Potro6–4, 6–4
Win3–22019 Hamburg European Open – Singles|Hamburg European Open, Germany 500 SeriesClay Andrey Rublev7–5, 4–6, 6–3

ATP Challenger & ITF Futures finals

Singles: 20 (15 titles, 5 runner–ups)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScore
Win1–0Aug 2009ITF Sochi, RussiaFuturesClay Mikhail Fufygin2–6, 7–5, 7–5
Win2–0Jun 2012ITF Kazan, RussiaFuturesClay Ivan Sergeyev6–4, 7–6
Loss2–1Jul 2012ITF Yerevan, ArmeniaFuturesClay Arthur De Greef0–6, 1–6
Loss2–2Aug 2012ITF Moscow, RussiaFuturesClay Boy Westerhof4–6, 4–6
Win3–2Aug 2012ITF Moscow, RussiaFuturesClay Alexander Lobkov6–3, 7–6
Win4–2Sep 2012ITF Tbilisi, GeorgiaFuturesClay Toni Androić6–3, 4–6, 7–6
Win5–2Dec 2012ITF Antalya, TurkeyFuturesHard Volodymyr Uzhylovskyi3–6, 6–2, 6–2
Win6–2Dec 2012ITF Antalya, TurkeyFuturesHard Guillermo Olaso6–2, 6–2
Win7–2Aug 2013ITF Appiano, ItalyFuturesClay Matteo Trevisan7–5, 3–6, 6–4
Loss7–3Nov 2013ITF Antalya TurkeyFuturesHard Robin Kern6–4, 3–6, 3–6
Loss7–4Nov 2013ITF Antalya, TurkeyFuturesClay Marc Rath1–6, 3–6
Win8–4Jan 2014ITF Kaarst, GermanyFuturesCarpet Miloslav Mečíř2–6, 7–5, 6–3
Win9–4May 2014Karshi Challenger, UzbekistanChallengerHard Chase Buchanan7–6, 6–2
Loss9–5Nov 2014Andria International, ItalyChallengerCarpet Ričardas Berankis4–6, 0–1 ret.
Win10–5Dec 2014ITF Doha, QatarFuturesHard Ramkumar Ramanathan7–6, 6–2
Win11–5Dec 2014ITF Doha, QatarFuturesHard James Marsalek6–1, 6–2
Win12–5Mar 2015Israel Open, IsraelChallengerHard Lukáš Lacko4–6, 6–4, 6–3
Win13–5Jul 2015The Hague Open, NetherlandsChallengerClay Andrey Kuznetsov6–7, 7–6, 6–3
Win14–5Mar 2016Guangzhou International, ChinaChallengerHard Lukáš Lacko6–1, 6–7, 7–5
Win15–5May 2016Heilbronn Neckarcup, GermanyChallengerClay Jan-Lennard Struff6–4, 7–6

Doubles: 6 (2 titles, 4 runner–ups)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentScore
Win1–0Mar 2010ITF McAllen, USAFuturesHard Chen Ti Jared Easton
Matheson Klein		7–5, 4–6,
Loss1–1Feb 2011ITF Brownsville, USAFuturesHard Boris Nicola Bakalov Devin Britton
Greg Ouellette		1–6, 3–6
Loss1–2Nov 2013ITF Antalya, TurkeyFuturesClay Miljan Zekić Tom Schonenberg
Matthias Wunner		0–6, 4–6
Loss1–3Dec 2013ITF Doha, QatarFuturesHard Yahor Yatsyk Evan Hoyt
Skander Mansouri		4–6, 6–7
Win2–3Jan 2014ITF Kaarst, GermanyFuturesCarpet Alexander Bury Uladzimir Ignatik
Dimitar Kutrovsky		4–6, 6–4,
Loss2–4Apr 2015Napoli Cup, ItalyChallengerClay Alexander Bury Ilija Bozoljac
Filip Krajinović		1–6, 2–6

Wins over top 10 players

Season2016201720182019Total
Wins11114

Davis Cup matches