Jan. 16, 2018
By Joanne Norell
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – University of Notre Dame men’s tennis junior captain Alex Lebedev made the most of his winter break, earning his first Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) points in singles and doubles at a pair of International Tennis Federation Futures events in California.
Lebedev reached the main draw singles quarterfinal at the USA F1 Futures tournament in Los Angeles, held Jan. 2-7 at USC. There, he defeated American Brendan Holt 6-3, 6-2 in the first round before downing American Gianni Ross 7-6(3), 6-1 in the second. The pair of main draw wins were good for his first entry into the ATP computer, currently ranking at No. 1305.
The next week, Lebedev (partnering with former Virginia star Collin Altamirano) reached the main draw doubles final at the USA F2 Futures event in Long Beach, California. The pair won their first two matches in three sets before defeating No. 2 seed Ante Pavic (Croatia) and Jan Satral (Czech Republic) in the semifinal.
Lebedev is coming off a fall campaign in which he went 8-4 in singles (including 3-2 against ranked opponents) and competed at both fall collegiate grand slam tournaments. After winning the ITA Summer National Championship, Lebedev earned a wild card bid to the ITA All-American Championships where he advanced to the Round of 16. He later capped the fall with a Round of 16 appearance in the ITA National Fall Championships and enters the spring ranked No. 45 in the Oracle/ITA Division I Men’s National Singles rankings. Lebedev owns a career 32-26 singles record and 29-16 doubles mark.
The Irish will return to action with the start of the dual season at 5 p.m. ET Friday when they welcome Michigan State to the Eck Tennis Pavilion.
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Joanne Norell, athletics communications assistant director at the University of Notre Dame, has been part of the Fighting Irish athletics communications team since 2014 and coordinates communications efforts for the Notre Dame men’s tennis and fencing programs, in addition to assisting with football communications and overseeing production of the football Gameday Magazine. Norell is a 2011 graduate of Purdue University and earned her master’s degree from Georgetown University in 2013.