Alexander Donski

Alexander Donski

Country (sports)	Bulgaria
Residence	Sofia, Bulgaria
Born	(1998-08-01) 1 August 1998 Philadelphia, PA, United States
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Turned pro	2017
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Coach	Mike Donski
Prize money	US$125,946
Singles
Career record	1–1 (at ATP Tour level, Grand Slam level, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles	0 0 Challengers, 2 Futures
Highest ranking	No. 525 (11 April 2022)
Current ranking	No. 888 (22 July 2024)
Doubles
Career record	4–9 (at ATP Tour level, Grand Slam level, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles	0 0 Challengers, 17 Futures
Highest ranking	No. 241 (1 July 2024)
Current ranking	No. 266 (22 July 2024)
Last updated on: 27 July 2024.

Alexander Donski (Bulgarian: Александър Донски; born 1 August 1998) is a Bulgarian tennis player.

Donski has a career high ATP singles ranking of No. 525 achieved on 11 April 2022 and a career high doubles ranking of No. 241 achieved on 1 July 2024. In singles, Donski has won two ITF World Tour titles and in doubles he won 17.

YouTube

Alexander is known for his YouTube channel called Operation Liftoff with Lazar Dokov, his cousin and fellow professional player/coach. The duo travel Europe to play in futures tournaments in a vlog style of video. They showcase the life an ITF Junior has to endure to succeed. The channel has over 5000 subscribers.

Junior career

Donski reached a career high ITF junior ranking of 92 on 24 October 2016. He has compiled a win/loss record of 50–39 in Singles and 33–40 in Doubles.

Professional career

2017–2020: early years: turning pro, ATP debut

Donski turned professional in 2017 and finished the year ranked No. 1578 in the ATP singles rankings.

Donski made his ATP main draw debut at the 2018 Diema Xtra Sofia Open, receiving a wildcard into both the singles and doubles tournament. By the end of 2018, Donski jumped 147 places to finish the 2018 season ranked No. 1431 in the ATP Singles rankings while finishing the year ranked 1061 in the ATP Doubles rankings.

In singles, his breakthrough on the ITF World Tennis Tour circuit came in 2019, when he reached a total of four ITF finals. He ended up as a runner-up at the M15 events in Sozopol, Telavi and Johannesburg before eventually winning his first ITF title in Pretoria after a three tiebreak sets win over Arthur Cazaux. During the season Donski also won his first two ITF doubles titles in Telavi and Pretoria as well as reaching his first ATP quarterfinal with Alexandar Lazarov at the 2019 Sofia Open.

In 2020 the Bulgarian received a wild card into the singles qualifying draw and the doubles main draw of the 2020 Sofia Open, but ended his participation in both with straight set losses in the opening round.

2021–2022: first ATP qualification win, top 250 debut in doubles

Donski's first singles win at the ATP level came at the 2021 Sofia Open, where he received another wild card for the qualifying draw and pulled an upset win over eighth seed Jurij Rodionov before losing to Andreas Seppi in the final round. Alexander also played in the doubles competition at his home ATP tournament with Dimitar Kuzmanov, but the Bulgarian duo lost in a third set tiebreaker to eventual champions Jonny O'Mara and Ken Skupski.

At the end of the 2021 season Donski started his rise in the doubles rankings with three more ITF titles, winning the trophy at the M15 event in Sozopol with Billy Harris and following it up with triumphs at the M25 events in Saint-Dizier and Villers-lès-Nancy with Petros Tsitsipas.

In January 2022, the Bulgarian continued his streak in doubles at a series of M25 events in Monastir and after 12 consecutive wins he added another trophy to his collection. In the following months Donski reached two more ITF singles finals in Tunisia, losing the first one to Laurent Lokoli before claiming his second singles title against Térence Atmane in March.

In the coming months Alexander won two more ITF doubles titles in Sarajevo and Alkmaar as well as also reaching three ATP Challenger Tour quarterfinals. At the 2022 Sofia Open the Bulgarian lost in the first qualifying round in singles, but he once again reached the quarterfinals in doubles with Alexandar Lazarov and made his top 250 debut in the ATP doubles rankings on 3 October 2022.

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures/World Tennis Tour finals

Singles: 6 (2–4)

Legend (singles) ATP Challenger Tour (0-0) ITF World Tennis Tour (2–4)

Titles by surface Hard (2–3) Clay (0–1) Grass (0–0) Carpet (0–0)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	0–1	May 2019	M15 Sozopol, Bulgaria	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Altuğ Çelikbilek	7–6(7–5), 3–6, 2–6
Loss	0–2	Aug 2019	M15 Telavi, Georgia	World Tennis Tour	Clay	Yan Bondarevskiy	4–6, 0–6
Loss	0–3	Sep 2019	M15 Johannesburg, South Africa	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Benjamin Lock	7–6(7–5), 3–6, 6–7(3–7)
Win	1–3	Sep 2019	M15 Pretoria, South Africa	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Arthur Cazaux	7–6(7–3), 6–7(5–7), 7–6 (8–6)
Loss	1–4	Feb 2022	M15 Monastir, Tunisia	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Laurent Lokoli	0–6, 6–3, 5–7
Win	2–4	Mar 2022	M15 Monastir, Tunisia	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Térence Atmane	6–2, 5–7, 6–3

Doubles: 30 (17–13)

Legend (doubles) ATP Challenger Tour (0–1) ITF Futures/World Tennis Tour (17–12)

Titles by surface Hard (14–8) Clay (3–5) Grass (0–0) Carpet (0–0)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	May 2018	Bulgaria F1, Sozopol	Futures	Hard	Vasil Kirkov	Sébastien Boltz Caio Silva	5–7, 3–6
Loss	0–2	May 2019	M15 Sozopol, Bulgaria	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Alexandar Lazarov	Alec Adamson Vasil Kirkov	6–4, 2–6, [6–10]
Loss	0–3	Jun 2019	M15 Plovdiv, Bulgaria	World Tennis Tour	Clay	Simon Anthony Ivanov	Alexander Igoshin Evgenii Tiurnev	1–6, 7–6(11–9), [5–10]
Win	1–3	Jul 2019	M15 Telavi, Georgia	World Tennis Tour	Clay	Maksim Tikhomirov	Yan Bondarevskiy George Tsivadze	6–4, 6–4
Loss	1–4	Sep 2019	M15 Johannesburg, South Africa	World Tennis Tour	Hard	David Pichler	Benjamin Lock Courtney John Lock	3–6, 4–6
Win	2–4	Oct 2019	M15 Pretoria, South Africa	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Raheel Manji	David Pichler Mehluli Sibanda	6–2, 7–5
Loss	2–5	Sep 2021	M25 Říčany, Czech Republic	World Tennis Tour	Clay	Colin Sinclair	Toby Kodat Adam Pavlásek	3–6, 5–7
Win	3–5	Oct 2021	M15 Sozopol, Bulgaria	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Billy Harris	Yan Bondarevskiy Kai Wehnelt	6–1, 6–4
Win	4–5	Nov 2021	M25 Saint-Dizier, France	World Tennis Tour	Hard (i)	Petros Tsitsipas	Blake Ellis Tristan Schoolkate	6–4, 4–6, [10–7]
Win	5–5	Nov 2021	M25 Villers-lès-Nancy, France	World Tennis Tour	Hard (i)	Petros Tsitsipas	Blake Ellis Tristan Schoolkate	7–6(7–2), 3–2 ret.
Win	6–5	Jan 2022	M25 Monastir, Tunisia	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Théo Arribagé	Dan Added Clément Tabur	6–2, 5–7, [10–7]
Loss	6–6	Jan 2022	M25 Monastir, Tunisia	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Zvonimir Babić	Théo Arribagé Titouan Droguet	6–1, 4–6, [8–10]
Win	7–6	Jun 2022	M15 Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina	World Tennis Tour	Clay	David Pichler	Constantin Bittoun Kouzmine Michael Vrbenský	5–7, 7–6(7–2), [12–10]
Win	8–6	Jun 2022	M15 Alkmaar, Netherlands	World Tennis Tour	Clay	Karl Friberg	Patrik Rikl Matěj Vocel	3–6, 3–3 ret.
Win	9–6	Oct 2022	M15 Sozopol, Bulgaria	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Vladyslav Orlov	Tuna Altuna Olaf Pieczkowski	6–2, 3–6, [10–5]
Loss	9–7	Nov 2022	M25 Heraklion, Greece	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Tim Sandkaulen	Sandro Kopp Neil Oberleitner	7–6(7–2), 3–6, [7–10]
Win	10–7	Mar 2023	M15 Monastir, Tunisia	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Ray Ho	Bogdan Bobrov Christoph Negritu	7–5, 6–3
Loss	10–8	May 2023	M15 Antalya, Turkey	World Tennis Tour	Clay	Egor Agafonov	Anton Chekhov Ivan Nedelko	6–4, 4–6, [8–10]
Loss	10–9	Jun 2023	M15 Štore, Slovenia	World Tennis Tour	Clay	Dominik Kellovský	Matthew William Donald Jakub Nicod	2–6, 2–6
Loss	10–10	Jul 2023	M15 Celje, Slovenia	World Tennis Tour	Clay	Zaharije-Zak Talic	Buvaysar Gadamauri Jakub Nicod	2–6, 3–6
Loss	10–11	Nov 2023	M15 Monastir, Tunisia	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Tiago Pereira	Daniel De Jonge John Sperle	w/o
Win	11–11	Dec 2023	M15 Monastir, Tunisia	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Tiago Pereira	Christoph Negritu Michael Zhu	6–2, 2–1, ret.
Win	12–11	Dec 2023	M15 Monastir, Tunisia	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Tao Mu	Igor Kudriashov Aleksandr Lobanov	6–0, 3–6, [12–10]
Win	13–11	Mar 2024	M25 Faro, Portugal	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Tiago Pereira	Simon Freund Johannes Ingildsen	6–4, 3–6, [10–7]
Loss	13–12	Mar 2024	M25 Quinta do Lago, Portugal	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Tiago Pereira	Gabriel Décamps Eero Vasa	2–7, 7–6(7–3), [7–10]
Win	14–12	Mar 2024	M25 Vale do Lobo, Portugal	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Tiago Pereira	Alberto Barroso Campos Imanol López Morillo	6–4, 4–6, [10–8]
Win	15–12	Mar 2024	M25 Loulé, Portugal	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Tiago Pereira	Dan Added Jakub Nicod	7–6(8–6), 2–6, [10–1]
Win	16–12	Apr 2024	M25 Monastir, Tunisia	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Tiago Pereira	Jordan Chiu Fred Simonsson	6–4, 6–2
Win	17–12	Jun 2024	M15 Hillcrest, South Africa	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Alec Beckley	Vasilios Caripi Jesse Flores	7–6(7–5), 6–4
Loss	17–13	Jul 2024	Segovia, Spain	Challenger	Hard	Tiago Pereira	Dan Added Arthur Reymond	4–6, 3–6

National participation

Davis Cup (4 wins, 4 losses)

Alexander Donski debuted for the Bulgaria Davis Cup team in 2019. Since then he has 9 nominations with 8 ties played, his singles W/L record is 1–0 and doubles W/L record is 3–4 (4–4 overall).

Group membership World Group (0–0) WG Play-off (0–0) Group I (1–2) Group II (3–2) Group III (0–0) Group IV (0–0)

Matches by surface Hard (2–3) Clay (2–1) Grass (0–0) Carpet (0–0)

Matches by type Singles (1–0) Doubles (3–4)

• indicates the result of the Davis Cup match followed by the score, date, place of event, the zonal classification and its phase, and the court surface.

Rubber result	No.	Rubber	Match type (partner if any)	Opponent nation	Opponent player(s)	Score
1–4; 13–14 September 2019; Kelvin Grove Club, Cape Town, South Africa; Group II Europe/Africa First Round; Hard surface
Defeat	1	I	Doubles (with Alexandar Lazarov)	South Africa	Raven Klaasen / Ruan Roelofse	3–6, 2–6
4–1; 6–7 March 2020; Costa Rica Country Club, San José, Costa Rica; World Group II Play-Off; Hard surface
Victory	2	V	Singles	Costa Rica	Rodrigo Crespo Piedra	6–2, 6–4
3–1; 4–5 March 2022; Sport Hall Sofia, Sofia, Bulgaria; World Group II Play-Off; Hard (i) surface
Victory	3	III	Doubles (with Alexandar Lazarov)	Paraguay	Juan Borba / Hernando José Escurra Isnardi	6–3, 7–5
3–0; 16–18 September 2022; Bulgarian National Tennis Center, Sofia, Bulgaria; World Group II; Clay surface
Victory	4	III	Doubles (with Alexandar Lazarov)	South Africa	Lleyton Cronje / Raven Klaasen	6–3, 7–6(8–6)
3–1; 4–5 February 2023; Wilding Park, Christchurch, New Zealand; World Group I Play-Off; Hard surface
Defeat	5	III	Doubles (with Petr Nesterov)	New Zealand	Artem Sitak / Michael Venus	4–6, 6–3, 3–6
1–3; 16–17 September 2023; Bulgarian National Tennis Center, Sofia, Bulgaria; World Group I; Clay surface
Victory	6	III	Doubles (with Alexandar Lazarov)	Kazakhstan	Alexander Bublik / Aleksandr Nedovyesov	6–3, 6–3
1–3; 3–4 February 2024; Tennis Center Avenue, Burgas, Bulgaria; World Group I Play-Off; Hard (i) surface
Defeat	7	III	Doubles (with Alexandar Lazarov)	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Mirza Bašić / Damir Džumhur	6–7(10–12), 3–6
3–2; 14–16 September 2024; Tennis Club Lokomotiv, Plovdiv, Bulgaria; World Group II; Clay surface
Defeat	8	III	Doubles (with Petr Nesterov)	El Salvador	Marcelo Arévalo / César Cruz	7–5, 6–7(4–7), 3–6

External links

• Alexander Donski at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Alexander Donski at the International Tennis Federation
• Alexander Donski at the Davis Cup