Aleksandar Kovacevic Looks to an Empty Box — and Finds the Answer Within: Interview from the Winston-Salem Open

By Chloe Wellington-Hunt

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For most players on the ATP Tour, looking toward the player box is almost instinctive. After a missed opportunity, a difficult service game or a momentum-changing point, there is usually someone there: a coach offering reassurance, encouragement or simply a familiar face.

American Aleksandar Kovacevic has spent this week at the ATP 250 event in Winston-Salem learning what happens when he looks over and nobody is there.

The world No. 89 has navigated the tournament without a coach physically in his box, an unusual experience for a player at this level. Instead of allowing the absence to become a disadvantage, Kovacevic has turned the week into an experiment in self-reliance — forcing himself to create his own energy, make his own adjustments and solve problems without immediately searching for an answer from someone else.

And so far, it is working.

Following his victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas at the Winston-Salem Open, Kovacevic acknowledged that he entered the match knowing exactly how dangerous the former world No. 3 could be. Their previous meeting had given him more than enough evidence.

“Yeah, I didn’t know exactly what to expect. I played him two or three years ago in Los Cabos, and he gave me a good little whooping. So I thought, you know, if he plays well, it can be a really tough match,” Kovacevic said.

This time, though, Kovacevic believed there was an opportunity.

“But at the same time, recently he hasn’t been doing as amazing as he used to. I think I played him when he was six in the world. Now he’s dropped a little bit, so, you know, there’s maybe a bit of a chink in the armor there. And definitely, I believed that I could get it done today.”

That belief translated into a composed performance. Kovacevic leaned heavily on his serve when he found himself under pressure and took advantage when Tsitsipas struggled to find his best level early in the match.

“And yeah, I thought I played really well. I thought I served really well. My serve got me out of some sticky situations,” he said. “I actually think he served pretty well as well. Otherwise, I had some chances there in the second set where I had some break points, and he came up with good first serves every time and came up with some good points.”

The match tightened considerably in the second set. Where Kovacevic felt he had been able to capitalize on Tsitsipas’ level in the first, the second became something closer to the battle he had anticipated.

“So I think it was just a high-level match, especially in the second set. The first set, I think he didn’t play as well as maybe he wished, and I capitalized on that. But I think the second set was toe-to-toe, and then I think I stepped up my game a lot in the tiebreak.”

Kovacevic was also willing to admit that not everything went according to design. On the first point of the tiebreak, he mishit a ball badly — and watched it land in.

“I think I got a little fortunate in some moments, especially the first point of the tiebreak. I completely shanked the ball, and it landed in,” he said. “That unfortunately set the tone in that tiebreak for me a little bit, where I hit some good serves, and all of a sudden, you know, that one point or two points that I got a little bit fortunate on meant that I won the tiebreak.”

There was no attempt to turn the victory into something more perfect than it was.

“So yeah, I mean, like I said, I was a little bit fortunate. I also played really well, capitalized on him not playing his best in some moments, and that was it.”

But the significance of the week extends beyond one win.

Kovacevic came to Winston-Salem searching for matches and momentum ahead of the US Open after a season he describes as another collection of highs and lows. Years removed from the period after college when he was not even certain professional tennis would become his career, the question is no longer whether Kovacevic belongs on tour. It is how consistently he can produce his best tennis once he is there.

“I think, looking at the past year, it’s been a lot of ups and downs again, which I wanted to avoid this year a little bit,” he said. “I wanted to have a little more consistent season, and it’s turned out to be a little bit more of the same, in terms of a lot of pretty good moments where I have a lot of really good weeks, but then I haven’t been able to back them up as much as I’d like.”

Winston-Salem, then, was supposed to provide something relatively simple: matches.

“Hopefully, you know, this is the start of something better. I’ve got three good matches under my belt, and that’s kind of what I’m looking for going into the US Open,” Kovacevic said. “That’s kind of why I came here in the first place: to right the ship a little bit, get some good matches under my belt and feel good going into New York and the rest of the season.”

“And I’ve accomplished that already, so everything else after this is a bit of a bonus.”

Yet the circumstances surrounding those matches have given Kovacevic another challenge entirely.

One of his coaches, Grant Chen, the head coach of SMU men’s tennis, is at the US Open with players of his own. Kovacevic’s other coach, Brian, had a considerably more important reason to miss Winston-Salem: his wife gave birth just days ago.

“He actually could have been here today, but I was like, ‘You know what? Just take care of yourself. I’ll see you in New York,’” Kovacevic said.

That left Kovacevic with an empty box.

“This is kind of one of those weeks where I wanted to see how it goes being all alone,” he explained. “It means I have to create my own energy and figure out my own solutions out there a little bit. If things aren’t going well, I have to find the adjustments myself.”

There is something revealing about the way Kovacevic describes it. The absence of his coaches has not meant an absence of coaching altogether. He remains in communication with them, receiving game plans before matches and discussing what comes next afterward. The difference arrives once he walks onto the court.

There, the responsibility belongs entirely to him.

“So when I do get a coach back, then that’ll just be a bonus, I feel like,” he said. “I’ve been impressed with how well I’ve done without someone there for me this week.”

There is also a strange contrast inherent in professional tennis. Across the net, Kovacevic can see opponents surrounded by teams built to help them through every detail of competition. Against Tsitsipas, that difference was impossible to miss.

“It’s been weird seeing someone like Tsitsipas today, where he’s got four or five people there for him, and I’ve got no one in my box,” Kovacevic said. “It maybe feels a little bit unprofessional in some ways, but I tried my best out there to still come out on top anyways, and I did, which was maybe surprising.”

Then he laughed at the other side of it.

“But also, yeah, it’s been chill. I like being alone, so it’s been nice.”

His coaches are still only a phone call away. Kovacevic said they had already exchanged messages following the match and planned to speak later, just as they would discuss the game plan for his next opponent.

“But I’ll still be out there alone tomorrow,” he said. “We’ll see how it goes.”

That “tomorrow” is now today–on Stadium Court at the Winston-Salem Open–against Arthur Fery.

When Tsitsipas looked toward his team and received energy from four or five people, Kovacevic had to manufacture the same response himself.

“I’m just trying to get myself going and find that energy within,” he said. “Instead of someone saying, ‘Let’s go, let’s go,’ I’m the one doing it for myself.”

It is easy to generate intensity when the stadium is full, the opponent is famous and the occasion provides its own motivation. Kovacevic is more interested in whether he can do it when none of those things are present.

“And that’s something that I’ve had to—honestly, it’s something I need to work on,” he said. “Because there are times where, like the other night, I’ve got three people watching the match. It’s late at night. I’m playing a guy who’s super young, and I’ve been around for a couple of years now.”

Those are the moments when professional tennis can become less glamorous and considerably more internal. Nobody in the box can manufacture urgency for him. Nobody can make the adjustment or summon the intensity. And of course, when something goes wrong in the match, no one can give him an easy applause or smile.

“I have to find my own internal motivation,” Kovacevic said. “Instead of someone just kind of making me motivated, I’ve got to do it myself.”

For a player who arrived in Winston-Salem hoping simply to “right the ship” before New York, the week has become an exercise in something larger. Kovacevic has gotten the matches he wanted and a significant victory along with them. But he has also discovered that even without his coaches in the box, he’s able to solve problems on court using his instincts.

“And that’s something I’ve done well this week,” he said, “so I’m happy about that.”