Forgive Nikoloz Basilashvili if he looks a little haggard on Monday night when he plays Tommy Haas at the Delray Beach Open. It has been quite the past few weeks for the Georgian 24-year-old.
Earlier this month, he ran off three consecutive wins to reach the semi-finals of the Garanti Koza Sofia Open in Bulgaria. In the second round, he improved to 2-1 against Top 10 players by upsetting World No. 8 Dominic Thiem. Basilashvili reached the semi-finals by knocking out five-time ATP World Tour titlist Martin Klizan.
The next week brought Basilashvili even closer to his first career ATP World Tour title. At the Memphis Open, he strung together four more wins, including a second-round upset of No. 20 Ivo Karlovic, to reach his second ATP World Tour title match (l. to Harrison).
“It gives me a lot of motivation and confidence for the next tournaments, of course, but I'm also really sad that I lost my second final on the ATP [World Tour],” said Basilashvili, who fell in the Generali Open final last year to Italian Paolo Lorenzi. “I have been working on the right things. I have a good team around me. And the most important thing is that I'm progressing.”
Deep runs on the ATP World Tour can have one slight downside: a harried schedule. The Memphis final finished around 5:30 p.m. Sunday. Basilashvili woke up less than 12 hours later, at 5 a.m. Monday, for his 7 a.m. flight and was practising in Delray Beach at 5 p.m.
“My body is doing all right, feeling strong,” he told ATPWorldTour.com. “In the final in Memphis, I was not feeling 100 per cent there. But [I'm] trying to adjust some things, and hopefully I'll be 100 per cent for the next week.”
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A more consistent practice schedule has helped his upward swing, which started last October when he qualified at the Erste Bank Open 500 and beat World No. 10 Tomas Berdych in the first round in Vienna. “I don't have so many days off, and I'm trying to be more stable with my practices,” he said. “I think that's why I have been playing better this season.”
Maintaining a consistent schedule has been difficult at times. His family – wife, Neka, and 20-month-old son, Lukas – live in Georgia, but Basilashvili trains in Istanbul and travels across the world playing ATP World Tour events. Perhaps when Lukas has grown up a little bit, Basilashvili said, he might bring the family on the tour. But for now, he's the one who zig zags around the world. “I'm always trying to go back,” he said.
Those frequent return trips have been spoiled by his recent winning streaks. The positive stretch has also cut his Emirates ATP Ranking in half. Basilashvili entered qualifying in Vienna ranked No. 107. This week, less than four months later, he reached a new career-high of No. 53.
“I have goals obviously that I want to achieve. But in general I'm not going by that I have to win this or I have to do this. I'm just trying to be 100 per cent always on the court and on the practice court, and results will come,” he said. “To be expecting to be Top 50, obviously, yes, that's why I'm practising so hard and being away from the family and dedicating a lot of time to the sport.”
Thinking twice about it, with his frequent travels to Georgia and Turkey, Basilashvili might be used to his frantic schedule of late and might not look tired at all on Monday night in Delray Beach. Thousands of people will be watching his tournament debut. Basilashvili plays Haas, who's making his final stop at the tournament, during the first night match on Stadium Court.