Alex Metreveli

Alex Metreveli

Alex Metreveli remains the only man from the Soviet Union or its successor states to reach a Wimbledon singles final. He got there in 1973, the year eighty-one ATP players boycotted over the Nikola Pilic suspension, and the Georgian beat who stayed to reach the first and only all Eastern European final in the tournament's history, against Jan Kodes. Kodes won it 6-1, 9-8, 6-3, the second set settled by the first tiebreak in a Wimbledon men's final. It made Metreveli the first Soviet player in any Grand Slam singles final.

He built that run on grass instincts and a stinging one-handed backhand, adding semifinals at Roland Garros in 1972 and the Australian Open in 1971, and reaching world No. 9 in 1974 while the Soviet federation set his schedule and rationed his trips abroad. The 13 career titles came inside those limits. He retired in 1979, tried a brief spell as a Georgian sports official, then settled into the role that suited him: a long career in television commentary, describing a game he never got to play on his own terms.