Vasko Mladenov

Country (sports)	Bulgaria
Residence	Sofia, Bulgaria
Born	(1989-07-30) 30 July 1989 Sofia, Bulgaria
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Turned pro	2005
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	US$47,373
Singles
Career record	1–0 (at ATP Tour level, Grand Slam level, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles	0 0 Challengers, 0 Futures
Highest ranking	No. 637 (20 June 2016)
Doubles
Career record	1–3 (at ATP Tour level, Grand Slam level, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles	0 0 Challengers, 17 Futures
Highest ranking	No. 359 (20 June 2016)
Last updated on: 20 September 2021.

Vasko Mladenov (Bulgarian: Васко Младенов, born 30 July 1989) is a former pro tennis player and an active padel player^[1] from Bulgaria.

He is a three time Bulgarian National champion, once in doubles (2014) and two times in singles (2016, 2017). Mladenov also holds the record for the most professional international doubles titles in Bulgarian tennis history (18 ITF titles)

Mladenov also played for two years at the number 1 position at St. John’s University (New York) in ITA Division 1. During his stay in New York he won the North Regional Championship (2011).

He participated in the Davis Cup in doubles in March 2016 against Turkey, bringing Bulgaria a historic win 7:6, 6:7, 6:7, 7:6, 6:4 alongside fellow Bulgarian Alexander Lazov.^[2]

Mladenov also took part in the Davis Cup tie against Tunisia in August 2016, where he won his singles match against Moez Echargui in a thrilling 6:7, 7:5, 7:6 match. He also took part in the Davis Cup group 3 tie against Iceland, Macedonia, Albania and finally Bulgaria faced Monaco in the deciding playoff to promote to group 2, unfortunately Bulgaria lost the tie. He made his debut at an ATP tournament in 2018, playing in his native Bulgaria the ATP Sofia Open.

At 2013 US Open, he was working with Novak Djokovic as his sparring partner.^[3]

Early and personal life

Vasko was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, as the only child of Vasil, who is from Bulgaria and, Elena, who is from Russia. When he was five he began to play with his grandfather, Lev Shulga, who is a well known coach from the former U.S.S.R. Vasko speaks fluent Bulgarian, Russian and English. He is known for his aggressive and all-court style of play. Mladenov has a right-handed forehand and double-handed backhand. His favourite surface is hard. His hobbies are listening to music, playing the piano, playing snooker, billiards and playing football.

The Bachelorette Ukraine

In 2021, as a public figure, Mladenov took part in the second season of the Ukrainian version of “The Bachelorette” («Холостячка»), a famous romantic TV reality show, which ended up being the most watched TV show in Ukraine that year.

After the TV show, Vasko gained a large amount of fans in Ukraine.

Junior career

He won three tournaments as a junior. The first one was in 2005, he defeated Plamen Avramov in Plovdiv in straight sets, final score was 6–0, 6–1. The second one also was in 2005, in Timișoara, he defeated Maksim Bakunin in three sets, 6–4, 4–6, 7–6⁽⁴⁾. The third and final one was in 2006, in Kyiv, he won the tournament after beating Uladzimir Ignatik in three sets, 3–6, 6–3, 6–1. All these tournaments were played on clay court. In 2007, in France, he played the European Junior. Bulgaria was represented by Vasko, Valentin Dimov and Aleksandar Lazov, they were runners-up.

Vasko Mladenov playing a point during the European Games in Krakow 2023.

Padel career

After finishing his professional tennis career in 2020, Vasko moved on to padel. Alongside his partner Kiril Dimitrov (BUL) he achieved a total of 5 international tournament titles between 2021 and 2023.

In 2022, Mladenov and Dimitrov took part in the Padel World Cup qualifications, there they managed to deliver the first ever padel victory (against Norway) in the history of Bulgarian padel.

Mladenov and Dimitrov are currently known as the best padel team in Bulgaria.

Music career

In 2009 Mladenov starred a career in music as a rap/hip-hop performer as “Vasko”. The majority of his songs are in Russian, however, Vasko has released 5 songs in Bulgarian over the years. So far he has released 4 albums: «Сердце Солдата» (2010), «Дороги» (2012), «VNY3» (2014) and «Отражения» (2022). ^{[4][5][6][7][8]}

Vasko has also released multiple singles.

Year-end rankings

Challenger and Futures/World Tennis Tour finals

Singles: 2 (0–2)

Legend (singles) ATP Challenger Tour (0–0) ITF Futures/World Tennis Tour (0–2)

Titles by surface Hard (0–0) Clay (0–2) Grass (0–0) Carpet (0–0)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	0–1	Jul 2015	Turkey F28, Ankara	Futures	Clay	Ivan Nedelko	5–7, 3–6
Loss	0–2	Oct 2015	Ukraine F6, Cherkasy	Futures	Clay	Ivan Nedelko	5–7, 4–6

Doubles: 31 (17–14)

Legend (doubles) ATP Challenger Tour (0–0) ITF Futures/World Tennis Tour (17–14)

Titles by surface Hard (10–5) Clay (7–8) Grass (0–0) Carpet (0–1)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Win	1–0	Jun 2007	Bulgaria F3, Pleven	Futures	Clay	Pirmin Haenle	Roman Kelečić Nikola Martinović	2–6, 6–4, 6–4
Loss	1–1	Jun 2007	Bulgaria F4, Sofia	Futures	Clay	Ilia Kushev	David Savić Miljan Zekić	4–6, 3–6
Win	2–1	Sep 2007	Bulgaria F6, Burgas	Futures	Clay	Sergey Betov	Roman Kelečić Nikola Martinović	3–0 ret.
Win	3–1	Sep 2008	Bulgaria F8, Stara Zagora	Futures	Clay	Boris Nicola Bakalov	Ivan Bjelica Miljan Zekić	6–3, 6–4
Win	4–1	Dec 2008	Brazil F33, São Paulo	Futures	Hard (i)	Nikita Kryvonos	Diogo Cruz Rodrigo-Antonio Grilli	4–6, 6–1, [10–5]
Loss	4–2	Dec 2008	Brazil F34, São Paulo	Futures	Hard (i)	Nicolás Pastor	Mario Eckardt Patrick Taubert	2–6, 2–6
Win	5–2	Dec 2008	Brazil F35, São Paulo	Futures	Hard	Lars Pörschke	Diego Matos Eládio Ribeiro Neto	6–1, 6–2
Win	6–2	May 2014	Ukraine F4, Rivne	Futures	Clay	Nikita Kryvonos	Yurii Dzhavakian Volodymyr Uzhylovskyi	6–4, 6–4
Loss	6–3	May 2014	Ukraine F5, Rivne	Futures	Clay	Nikita Kryvonos	Yurii Dzhavakian Volodymyr Uzhylovskyi	2–6, 4–6
Loss	6–4	Jul 2014	Bulgaria F5, Plovdiv	Futures	Clay	Dinko Halachev	Romain Arneodo Luca Margaroli	6–7(4–7), 4–6
Win	7–4	Apr 2015	Tunisia F13, El Kantaoui	Futures	Hard	Anis Ghorbel	Remy Chala Daniil Medvedev	4–6, 6–1, [11–9]
Loss	7–5	May 2015	Ukraine F1, Cherkasy	Futures	Clay	Vadym Ursu	Sergiy Sergiienko Artem Smirnov	6–3, 4–6, [7–10]
Loss	7–6	Jul 2015	Turkey F29, Ankara	Futures	Clay	Alexander Igoshin	Daniele Capecchi Federico Maccari	6–7(6–8), 6–3, [7–10]
Win	8–6	Sep 2015	Tunisia F21, El Kantaoui	Futures	Hard	Anis Ghorbel	Aziz Dougaz Jordan Dyke	6–2, 6–7(6–8), [10–6]
Win	9–6	Sep 2015	Tunisia F22, El Kantaoui	Futures	Hard	Anis Ghorbel	Romain Bauvy Ugo Nastasi	2–6, 7–5, [12–10]
Loss	9–7	Nov 2015	Tunisia F33, El Kantaoui	Futures	Hard	Anis Ghorbel	Jordi Muñoz Abreu David Pérez Sanz	3–6, 1–6
Win	10–7	Dec 2015	Tunisia F34, El Kantaoui	Futures	Hard	Anis Ghorbel	David Pérez Sanz David Vega Hernández	6–7(2–7), 6–4, [10–8]
Loss	10–8	Dec 2015	Tunisia F35, El Kantaoui	Futures	Hard	Anis Ghorbel	Peter Bothwell Lloyd Glasspool	1–6, 4–6
Win	11–8	May 2016	Ukraine F3, Cherkasy	Futures	Clay	Volodymyr Uzhylovskyi	Denys Mylokostov Danylo Veremeychuk	6–4, 6–1
Win	12–8	Jun 2016	Bulgaria F3, Stara Zagora	Futures	Clay	Yan Sabanin	Carlos Calderón Pedro Martínez	6–2, 7–6(7–2)
Loss	12–9	Aug 2016	Belarus F1, Minsk	Futures	Hard	Markos Kalovelonis	Yaraslav Shyla Dzmitry Zhyrmont	6–7(8–10), 3–6
Loss	12–10	Jul 2017	Turkey F25, Istanbul	Futures	Clay	Nikola Ćaćić	Miki Janković Dimitar Kuzmanov	4–6, 6–2, [9–11]
Loss	12–11	Jul 2017	Turkey F26, Istanbul	Futures	Clay	Alexander Igoshin	Sarp Ağabigün Marat Deviatiarov	2–6, 6–7(5–7)
Loss	12–12	May 2018	Tunisia F18, Djerba	Futures	Hard	Anis Ghorbel	Diego Hidalgo Sem Verbeek	2–6, 4–6
Win	13–12	May 2018	Tunisia F19, Djerba	Futures	Hard	Anis Ghorbel	Hady Habib José Vidal Azorín	4–6, 7–6(9–7), [12–10]
Win	14–12	May 2018	Tunisia F20, Djerba	Futures	Hard	Anis Ghorbel	Alexis Klégou Francesco Vilardo	6–3, 4–6, [10–7]
Win	15–12	Jun 2018	Tunisia F21, Djerba	Futures	Hard	Anis Ghorbel	John Paul Fruttero Albano Olivetti	6–3, 6–2
Win	16–12	Sep 2018	Tunisia F32, Monastir	Futures	Hard	Anis Ghorbel	Alexander Merino Christoph Negritu	6–3, 6–3
Loss	16–13	Nov 2018	Estonia F2, Tartu	Futures	Carpet (i)	Luca Castelnuovo	Vladimir Ivanov Maxim Ratniuk	4–6, 6–1, [4–10]
Win	17–13	Mar 2019	M15 Tabarka, Tunisia	World Tennis Tour	Clay	Anis Ghorbel	Sergio Martos Gornés Oriol Roca Batalla	6–4, 6–1
Loss	17–14	Aug 2019	M15 Irpin, Ukraine	World Tennis Tour	Clay	Sagadat Ayap	Vladyslav Orlov George Tsivadze	6–1, 3–6, [5–10]

Davis Cup

Vasko Mladenov debuted for the Bulgaria Davis Cup team in 2016 against Turkey in Ankara. Since then he has a 1–0 singles record and a 4–2 doubles record (5–2 overall). He participated in Davis Cup in doubles in March 2016 against Turkey, bringing Bulgaria a historic win 7:6, 6:7, 6:7, 7:6, 6:4 alongside fellow Bulgarian Alexander Lazov. Mladenov also took part in the Davis Cup tie against Tunisia in August 2016, where he won his singles match against Moez Echargui in a thrilling 6:7, 7:5, 7:6 match. He also took part in the Davis Cup group 3 tie against Iceland, Macedonia, Albania and finally Bulgaria faced Monaco in the deciding playoff to promote to group 2, unfortunately Bulgaria lost the tie.

Singles (1–0)

Edition	Round	Date	Surface	Opponent	W/L	Result
2016 Europe/Africa Zone Group II	RPO	17 July 2016	Hard	Moez Echargui	W	6–7(5–7), 7–5, 7–6(7-5)

Doubles (4–2)

Edition	Round	Date	Partner	Surface	Opponents	W/L	Result
2016 Europe/Africa Zone Group II	R1	5 March 2016	Alexander Lazov	Hard (I)	Cem İlkel Tuna Altuna	W	7–6(8–6), 6–7(5–7), 6–7(4–7), 7–6(7–5), 6–4
	RPO	16 July 2016	Alexandar Lazarov	Hard	Malek Jaziri Skander Mansouri	L	4–6, 4–6, 3–6
2018 Europe Zone Group III	RR	4 April 2018	Dimitar Kuzmanov	Clay	Elbi Mjeshtri Genajd Shypheja	W	6–0, 6–0
	RR	5 April 2018	Dimitar Kuzmanov	Clay	Birkir Gunnarsson Egill Sigurdsson	W	6–2, 6–1
	RR	6 April 2018	Adrian Andreev	Clay	Stefan Micov Gorazd Srbljak	W	6–4, 6–3
	PRO	7 April 2018	Dimitar Kuzmanov	Clay	Romain Arneodo Benjamin Balleret	L	4–6, 3–6

• RPO = Relegation Play–off
• PPO = Promotion Play–off
• RR = Round Robin

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vasko Mladenov.

• Vasko Mladenov at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Vasko Mladenov at the International Tennis Federation
• Vasko Mladenov at the Davis Cup
• https://www.facebook.com/vaskomladenovtennis/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel
• https://www.facebook.com/vaskomusic/?fref=ts
• https://twitter.com/vaskomladenov
• https://soundcloud.com/vasko-music