Tennis Alexander Volkov

Volkov finished runner-up in three tournaments over 1989 and 1990; in the latter year he defeated World No. 1 Stefan Edberg in straight sets in the first round of the US Open. Volkov won his first top-level professional singles title in 1991 at Milan. At Wimbledon that year, he lost a close match in the fourth round to the eventual tournament champion Michael Stich, 4–6, 6–3, 7–5, 1–6, 7–5 despite winning the same number of games as Stich overall in the match, which hinged on a lucky shot hit by the German when he was trailing 4–5 in the final set. With Volkov serving for the match, at 5-4 and 30–30, Stich hit a seemingly-wide shot that caught the net and, instead of going out, looped over Volkov's head and back into play for a winner. What could have been 40-30, and match-point for Volkov, instead became a vital break-point opportunity for Stich at 30-40, that he immediately converted. Stich subsequently won the next two games and the match.

Volkov was runner-up in three tournaments in 1992 and won his second title in 1993 in Auckland. Later in 1993, Volkov defeated Björn Borg in the first round of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, in a match which proved to be the last of Borg's career. Volkov won the Kremlin Cup a year later in 1994 to claim his third (and final) career title. He reached one more final in 1997 in Shanghai.

His best Grand Slam singles performance was reaching the semifinals of the 1993 US Open, where he defeated Jonathan Stark, Kevin Ullyett, Amos Mansdorf, Chuck Adams and Thomas Muster before losing to Pete Sampras.

Volkov was part of the Russian team that reached the final of the Davis Cup in 1994. He won singles rubbers over Patrick Rafter of Australia in the first round and Michael Stich of Germany in the semifinals. However, he lost both his singles rubbers in the final as Russia was defeated by Sweden 4–1.

Volkov retired from the professional tour in 1998. His career-high singles ranking was world No. 14 in 1994. His career prize-money earnings totalled $3,362,786.

He was Marat Safin's coach before the duo split in July 2007.

Singles: 11 (3 titles, 8 runner-ups)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	0–1	Feb 1989	Milan, Italy	Grand Prix	Carpet	Boris Becker	1–6, 2–6
Loss	0–2	Jan 1990	Rosmalen, Netherlands	World Series	Grass	Amos Mansdorf	3–6, 6–7
Loss	0–3	Oct 1990	Berlin, Germany	World Series	Carpet	Ronald Agénor	6–4, 4–6, 6–7(8–10)
Win	1–3	Feb 1991	Milan, Italy	World Series	Carpet	Cristiano Caratti	6–1, 7–5
Loss	1–4	Jan 1992	Wellington, New Zealand	World Series	Hard	Jeff Tarango	1–6, 0–6, 3–6
Loss	1–5	Mar 1992	Rotterdam, Netherlands	World Series	Carpet	Boris Becker	6–7(9–11), 6–4, 2–6
Loss	1–6	Apr 1992	Johannesburg, South Africa	World Series	Hard	Aaron Krickstein	4–6, 4–6
Win	2–6	Jan 1993	Auckland, New Zealand	World Series	Hard	MaliVai Washington	7–6(7–2), 6–4
Loss	2–7	Jan 1994	Adelaide, Australia	World Series	Hard	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	4–6, 3–6
Win	3–7	Nov 1994	Moscow, Russia	World Series	Carpet	Chuck Adams	6–2, 6–4
Loss	3–8	Feb 1997	Shanghai, China	World Series	Carpet	Ján Krošlák	2–6, 6–7(2–7)

Doubles: 3 (3 runner-ups)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partnet	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	Nov 1991	Moscow, Russia	World Series	Carpet	Andrey Cherkasov	Eric Jelen   Carl-Uwe Steeb	4–6, 6–7
Loss	0–2	Jan 1993	Auckland, New Zealand	World Series	Hard	Alex Antonitsch	Grant Connell   Patrick Galbraith	3–6, 6–7
Loss	0–3	Aug 1996	Long Island, United States	World Series	Hard	Hendrik Dreekmann	Luke Jensen   Murphy Jensen	3–6, 6–7

Singles: 1 (1–0)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Nov 1996	Aachen, Germany	Challenger	Hard	David Prinosil	6–3, 7–6

Singles

Doubles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Result	Year	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	1985	French Open	Clay	Vladimer Gabrichidze	Petr Korda   Cyril Suk	6–4, 0–6, 5–7