Georgia’s Nikolos Basilashvili has become a regular competitor at Grand Slam and Masters events over the last few years. In 2018, he became the first Georgian player to win an ATP title since Alexander Metreveli 50 years previously. He is also the highest-ranked Georgian player of the last 30 years and the first to have represented his country at a major final since they gained independence. He has won the German Open and China Open, among others, and was runner-up at the prestigious 2021 Indian Wells Masters. He is currently ranked as one of the 20 best mens singles players in the world and has been in the ATP Top 100 since 2016.
Basilashvili was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, in February 1992, just as Georgia was finding its feet as a new, independent country. He began playing tennis when he was five, and although his family moved to Russia when he was 15, he moved to the United States to train in California for four years. He then returned to Georgia, only to move to Turkey for more training. He turned professional aged 16 and began working his way up around the international circuit. He made his Grand Slam debut in 2015, reaching the third round of Wimbledon. In 2016, he broke into the ATP 100 for the first time after qualifying for the Olympics, reaching his first ATP final, and beating a top-10 player for the first time.
2018 was Basilashvili’s breakthrough year as he won a historic title at the German Open—Georgia’s first ATP victory since 1968. In 2021, he appeared in both his second Olympics and his first Masters 1000 Final.