Pavel Kotov born on November 18, 1998 in Moscow. He has spent his entire life in his hometown and, in principle, does not plan to move, believing that it is possible to maintain a high level in world tennis without training abroad.
He started playing tennis in one of the sections of South Butovo. At the age of 10, he joined the group of a rather famous coach, Ekaterina Kryuchkova, with whom he worked for several years. Vera Zvonareva is considered her student, and she also became the first coach of Daniil Medvedev. Following the latter, Kotov, who is two years younger than Medvedev, joined the “Be Healthy” club in the factory village of Mosrentgen, where he still trains today under the guidance of Igor Chelyshev. In addition, since October last year, Mikhail Bril has been the athlete’s personal coach.
Pavel’s circle consists of his close people. In particular, mother Liliya is a physiotherapist and PR agent, and brother Yuri is an assistant and travel manager, and his girlfriend Maria Kostova also travels with him to tournaments. One of the most memorable episodes of Kotov’s career is associated with Liliya: during the qualification of the Masters 2023 in Madrid, he got angry with his mother who told him from the stands and asked in an extremely rude manner to be silent. Later, the tennis player apologized for his behavior on the Telegram channel.
In 2015, he took the number one spot in the world rankings among 16-year-olds. He has been performing professionally since 2016. He has three ATP Challenger titles and the same number of ITF titles. He made his debut on the ATP Tour in 2020 at a tournament in St. Petersburg. There, he lost in qualifying. In February of the same year, Kotov won his first doubles title (with Roman Safiullin) at the Challenger Series tournament in Cherbourg.
In 2021, the Russian won another Challenger in Forli, Italy, but in singles, and in 2022 he managed to defend his title. In April 2022, Pavel won his first match on the ATP Tour, qualifying for the ATP-250 tournament in Marrakech and then beating the Dutchman, ninth seed, Tallon Griekspoor. Then he made his debut in the main draw of the Grand Slam tournaments, losing in the first round of Roland Garros (Botik van de Zandshulp) and the US Open (Brandon Nakashima).
In April 2023, the Russian reached the semifinals of an ATP tournament for the first time – he again successfully performed in Marrakech, and then qualified for the Masters in Madrid, where this episode happened with his mother. In October, Kotov reached the final of the ATP-250 tournament on hard court in Stockholm. Pavel failed to win the first ATP title, losing to Gael Monfils in 2 hours and 37 minutes, but dedicated the first decisive match to one of his coaches, Ivan Polyakov, who died of cancer. At the end of the tournament, Pavel reached his career high of 81st place in the ranking.
This season, Kotov has made significant progress in his career. Already in January, he defeated Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech in the first round of the Australian Open, which became his first victory in a Grand Slam tournament. He also reached the semifinals of his “favorite” tournament in Marrakech again.
But Kotov’s most notable performance to date was his performance at the French Open in May. Due to his high rating, the Russian entered the main draw without qualifying, eliminating 32nd seed Cameron Norrie in the first round. In the second, he knocked out tennis veteran Stan Wawrinka. The encounter turned out to be incredibly joyful: the stands of the Suzanne Lenglen court were furiously supporting the French-speaking Swiss, victorious in Paris in 2015. Nevertheless, the Russian won the difficult match in four sets and, in a post-match interview, he promised to celebrate his success at McDonald’s.
Not all fans turned a blind eye to this joke. The fact is that Kotov’s coaches believe that the athlete is overweight. Pavel himself admits this, and after Roland Garros he hinted at at least five extra pounds. Nevertheless, two victories in long matches in 2024 indicate that the Russian is gradually improving in this component.
Unfortunately, in the third round, Kotov ran into second-seeded Jannik Sinner and promptly lost to him after three sets. Nevertheless, thanks to his successes in Paris and other tournaments, the Russian tennis player has moved closer to the top 50 of the Olympic world rankings and is returning to the courts of the Games, where he has achieved the greatest success in his career so far. For him, clay is the best surface of his career: 57% wins and two semi-finals at the ATP level.
Comment by the President of the Russian Tennis Federation Shamilya Tarpishcheva for :
— Kotov has improved a lot this year. You could say that I have made a breakthrough. The advantage is that no one has really studied him yet. Pavel is a powerful guy, his ball flies very well and he himself is a willing player. He never gives up, his nerves are in perfect order. It is great to have such a player in the national team. There are all the prerequisites that Kotov will further improve. It happens that sometimes you can play according to the score, not give all your strength on the field, if the situation requires you to save it, but Pavel has everything in front.
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Source : MatchTV
I’m Rose Brown , a journalist and writer with over 10 years of experience in the news industry. I specialize in covering tennis-related news for Athletistic, a leading sports media website. My writing is highly regarded for its quick turnaround and accuracy, as well as my ability to tell compelling stories about the sport.
