Aleksandar Kovacevic (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
Aleksandar Kovacevic can’t respect pickleball as a professional sport: “I hate pickleball. I think it’s a very dumbed-down version of tennis.”
“It’s a fun game; my grandpa would probably pick it up in about 20 minutes. But as a real professional sport, it’s a joke,” he told RG and CLAY in this interview.
The 26-year-old tennis player, currently ranked 79th in the world, admitted that there have been periods in his life when he also hated tennis, describing the competition as “both exhilarating and horrible.” Years later, Kovacevic realized that he was truly blessed with a great ability and started pushing himself more: “Tennis can put you in pretty dark places.”
In this conversation, which took place during the Copa Cap Cana Challenger 175 event in the Dominican Republic —an event he ended up winning— Kovacevic shared some interesting takes, including how he humanized Djokovic and why he wouldn’t oppose removing bettors from tennis.
The Grind of Tennis Life
Q: What would you be if you weren’t a tennis player?
Kovacevic: Realistically, I would have worked in finance, something boring maybe. But if I had a dream to do something else, definitely a snowboarder. My favorite thing to do in the world is be on a snowy mountain, no matter what I’m doing. If I’m snowboarding or just chilling.
Q: What’s the difference between going downhill on a board and being 5-all in the third set of a tight match?
Kovacevic: It’s definitely more relaxing to be on a snowy mountain. It’s kind of an escape from the real world, my normal life. Tennis has blessed me a lot in this life, but also it’s definitely somewhat of a job sometimes. And the competition is both exhilarating, but it’s also sometimes horrible. It’s not the nicest feeling to lose a match 6-4 on the third. It’s an amazing feeling when you win. The heat of the battle is good and bad. The season in tennis is so long and tough, yes, I love to compete, but I also love the little breaks that we have. And we don’t have many of them, so when I get it, I very much cherish it. Not many tennis players say it much, but sometimes we love not playing. Sometimes the sweetest part is right between the big competitions.
Q: Have you ever hated tennis?
Kovacevic: Yeah, absolutely, especially growing up. It’s still a love-hate relationship. It can put you in some pretty dark places, especially being on the road for so long. What dictates your mood is whether you win or you lose. And if you’re losing a lot, it can put you in a place where you don’t want to be mentally. It’s tough. You kind of wish sometimes that you were just working a regular job where the bills get paid, whether you win or lose, whether you don’t need to compete. Also, it’s a very fulfilling life sometimes. Growing up, I wasn’t always the most motivated to play tennis. My parents had to kind of push me to do it. As I got older, I realized I was blessed with an ability and was pretty good at tennis. So I started to be like, okay, let’s see how good I can be at this. And I started pushing myself more.
Q: When was the last time you felt trapped in a dark place?
Kovacevic: Tennis is very lonely. You don’t have teammates you can rely on, and when you have a bad night, no one can sub in for you. It’s difficult, but obviously, we don’t live the worst lives in the world. It’s a good life. I can’t complain too much. People are dying in some parts of the world. I can’t say my problems are comparable to others. But talking about my life, if I’m losing eight, nine matches in a row, going week to week, having the same tough experiences, for me, it’s not an easy life. At the end of last year, I was not doing well on the court, off the court. I wasn’t able to win two matches in a row since the US Open.
It’s not that I was considering retiring, but it’s just hard, man. When your life is centered around this one sport, and you are not performing well, you will just have a hard time.
Djokovic, Idols, and American Peers
Q: What’s been the best day of your career so far?
Kovacevic: Maybe playing Djokovic in the French Open center court, in 2023. That was just cool. He was my idol growing up. He’s still my idol. He’s the best tennis player of all time. Obviously, those guys, I mean, Federer and Nadal are now retired, but Djokovic… I can’t say he has probably 10 years left on the tour, so to be able to play on a huge court like that in a big tournament against him was something that you don’t have many opportunities to do. Unless you’re going deep in the tournaments, you’re not playing those guys very much. It was a privilege for me and something I’m super grateful to have been able to do. I’d love to see all the things that he’s doing so I can kind of almost take some things to copy, but part of this sport is being kind of like secretive about what you’re doing so that other people don’t get to replicate it. You want to have some kind of advantage. Seeing him do amazing things is obviously inspiring. What the Big Three had as a rivalry inspired a lot of people. I think that’s what Alcaraz and Sinner have kind of tried to start doing. Just seeing someone win, I don’t even know how many, 20 or more Grand Slams, gives you belief that you can do it too. Maybe not me! I haven’t won one yet. It’s very far away maybe to win one. But to see everyone kind of pushing the needle over and over, the younger generation trying to be like them and then us trying to replicate, it just pushes the sport further.
Q: Obviously, you also have a special admiration for Djokovic because of your Serbian roots.
Kovacevic: Djokovic also inspired my dad a lot. He is Serbian. Imagine what it means for a father and a mother to watch their son playing against the greatest player of all time on Phillippe Chatrier. It was not only super cool for me, but also for everyone that’s been in my life.
Q: Do you truly realize how great a legend like Djokovic is when you face him on one of the most iconic stages in tennis?
Kovacevic: Actually, I realized that he was a little bit human when I played him. In my head before the match, it’s like I’m going to play the best tennis player that’s ever played the sport. This is going to be crazy. But at the same time, he’s not superhuman when you’re playing against him. It’s still a tennis match. And that’s how you have to see it if you want to have a chance against some of those guys, you have to see them as humans. At first, you have this idea about these kinds of legends. I had never played against one of them, I had never spoken to Novak before that. Then you get to meet a super nice guy.
His achievements make him almost this aura, this superhuman person.
Q: How’s your relationship with the other guys from the US? Right now, nine of them are ranked higher than you. Is making the Davis Cup team one of your goals?
Kovacevic: I’m really good friends with a bunch of guys. A lot of us live in the same area in Boca Raton, Florida. It’s me, Tommy Paul, Francis Tiafoe, some younger guys. I think overall in tennis, everyone gets along pretty well. Obviously, there are a couple of guys who don’t have the best relationships with others. But on tour, you see each other every week. Because it’s such a lonely sport, it’s hard to be mean to people. You just want to have a good time at tournaments. I’m good friends with everybody, including the Americans — we all get along well. Davis Cup… we have so many good players representing the US that if I’m not in the top four or five, I trust those guys to do well. I’m more focused on being as good as I can be, whatever that means. If that means playing Davis Cup, great. If not, also great. I can’t say Davis Cup or being the best American is at the forefront of my goals, but it’d be cool.
On Bettors, Insults, and the Pickleball Debate
Q: How do you feel when upset bettors comment on your Instagram posts? Does it make you angry, laugh, or do you just not care about it?
Kovacevic: When I first got on tour, it actually made me laugh quite a bit because I was like, oh, these guys. I understand bettors, because I have a bunch of friends that bet on stupid stuff, they lose money all the time, blackjack, whatever. People get emotional. I don’t know if I was a betting man, if I would ever, ever reach out to anybody, I think it’s kind of weird to reach out to the person you lost the bet on about it. It’s just kind of strange and it’s not obviously nice. But I get them. Whether I win a match or I lose a match, I get messages that someone’s going to kill my family. Even my girlfriend is getting messages. She’s like, oh, this person threatened me. You don’t want to say it’s nothing, but, you know, I get these every match. It’s nonstop. You kind of go numb to it. If you block the messages, they’re still coming through. It’s just kind of the reality of life. It’s cruel. Life can be cruel.
Q: You can see “NO BETTING” signs right outside the courts in the Challenger Tour events.
Kovacevic: And I don’t know if I will be supportive of ending betting because betting brings us money. And it also brings eyeballs to tennis. I mean, I’m sure in other sports as well. I mean, the culture is that betting kind of dictates a lot of the eyeballs that are watching. It’s just something that comes with the sport. I think maybe has it gone a little bit too far in terms of like how much is broadcasted and stuff. There’s some events I feel like that are only put up just for betting purposes. And that takes away the love for the game. Like I can go with you right now and say, oh, let’s broadcast our coin flip onto a betting site and have people bet on it. But that’s not why we do it. That’s not why we play.
Q: “Match-fixer” is one of the most common insults.
Kovacevic: No one at this level of tennis, in my opinion, is fixing any matches. It’s not worth it. It’s stupid. Everyone always texting me, oh, you’re fixing. But it’s just a very stupid thing to say when it comes to ATP tennis matches, because we make enough money here to not ever think about it. And just morally…
Q: You were born and raised in New York City. In the US East Coast especially, pickleball is very popular and it’s even taking over tennis courts.
Kovacevic: I hate pickleball! I think it’s a very dumbed-down version of tennis. As a serious professional sport, I don’t respect it. At all. Now, as a sport for recreational purposes, yeah, go for it. The reason that it is popular in the States is because it gets people out to exercise. Obviously I support that. It’s very accessible. Kind of like cornhole or something to play. Go for it. It’s a fun game. You can get your family playing. I can get my grandpa to come out and he’ll probably be OK at it in like 20 minutes. But for a real professional sport, it’s a joke. A lot of the guys that are anything ranked seriously in that sport, they are all coming from tennis, they couldn’t make it in tennis.
Q: Have you ever played padel?
Kovacevic: That’s a super cool sport that I do respect a lot. Very athletic. A cool variation from tennis, where you have to develop a lot of skills. It adds some kind of flair, you need to control the bounce from the walls. But pickleball? No, not for me.
Travel, Food, and Snowboarding Dreams
Q: A good thing about tennis is that it gives you the opportunity to travel to so many places, to visit different cultures. Are you kind of the guy that likes to explore around or do you just spend time in the club, the hotel and the airport?
Kovacevic: I’m definitely the kind of guy that likes to explore, but at the same time you have to be smart with the body and the mental energy. Before the tournament I prefer to do preparation stuff. The sightseeing is more for the day off. However, my number one thing to do during tournaments is going for a nice dinner somewhere. I love food, I like to see the local culture, I want to try different things. We’re usually busy during the day with practice, physio, massage, fitness. So the night time is the only time that we have that we can do something like go out and try different things.
Dinner is my highlight of the day.
Q: A great excuse to explore different cities.
Kovacevic: Yeah, for sure. I don’t operate well with just Uber Eats to the hotel. Sometimes, when I’m super, super tired, done late, it’s a good option. But I always like at least one part of the day to go walk somewhere, explore, see a different district or something.
Q: What’s your most memorable trip outside of tennis?
Kovacevic: Last year, right after the French Open, I was on a boat in the south of France for a week. We don’t really have too much time to do like crazy vacations because, you know, especially in my ranking, I can’t really take too much time off between tournaments and things. I went there with my girlfriend and her family on a nice boat navigating the Mediterranean Sea, fantastic stuff. So we were able to stop in a bunch of different little towns. Outside of that, I went to Lake Tahoe. I went snowboarding a couple of years ago. It’s been a couple of years since I last did it, but I’ve been hoping to find some time to do it again, maybe this year or next. I’m hoping that I have some time this offseason to go again.
Q: So snowboarding is your biggest passion outside the tennis court. At the same time, isn’t it dangerous for someone who needs to work injury-free?
Kovacevic: Yeah, I can’t really do it. Actually, probably in some of my contracts, it’s suggested that I don’t do it for injuries and stuff, but I’m pretty smart when I practice it.
Journalist. Founder of CLAY, a global tennis media platform. Since 2012, Sebastián has covered multiple international events for various sports outlets, including the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Tennis is his specialty, and his yearly calendar is built around four essential stops: the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and the US Open. His love of travel has also shaped his work beyond sports, inspiring travel chronicles from unique journeys — like crossing the Australian desert in a van or exploring a tourist-free Japan during the pandemic — published in travel magazines.
