Alex Knaff playing in the Davis Cup;
Credit: Ali Sahib, Chronicle.lu
Luxembourg’s second-ranked men's tennis player, Alex Knaff, has climbed more than 100 spots in the ATP singles rankings over the past few months, currently sitting at World No. 599.
The 27-year-old athlete played a key role in SEAT Lëtzebuerg’s Davis Cup victory against Lithuania in the World Group I Play-Off in early February 2025. He then travelled to Asia, where he went on to claim a tournament win in Thailand.
Chronicle.lu spoke with Alex Knaff about his recent success on the court as well as the Luxembourg Davis Cup team’s upcoming clash against Chile.
Chronicle.lu: After your successful performance in the Davis Cup earlier this year, how did your training and competition schedule look in the weeks that followed?
Alex Knaff: I took a while until I got back into a competition. I trained pretty intensely physically and also on the court for three weeks in Luxembourg. So that was good to get me prepared again because I hadn't done such a training block for a while. […] Because Davis Cup was pretty emotional and a big moment for me and for the team. So it was good to get back down from that and then get ready, motivated again for competition. And then after that three-week training block, I went to Thailand [ITF tournament, M15 Nonthaburi] for three weeks and I had some good results there. And so yeah, obviously with those points that I got, I improved my ranking quite a bit. […] I used the motivation from Davis Cup and just the confidence I gained there for the next matches.
Chronicle.lu: In Thailand, you took part in both singles and doubles competitions. Can you tell us more about your approach to those events?
Alex Knaff: I played mostly singles in the first week. I played doubles also, but it was mostly to kind of get some extra matches and get used to the conditions because it was very hot. And so it was good for me to spend more time on the court. But then, since I did well in the singles the first week, I decided not to play doubles the second week. And then also I did well in the second week. So, same thing for the third week. […] It was tough conditions, like 38 degrees, 37 degrees every day. But I feel like I handled it pretty well and I played well. […] Tough matches and the mentality was good. The performance was good.
Chronicle.lu: Could you share more about how the tournament unfolded for you?
Alex Knaff: I won the first week and then I got to the finals of the second week and lost to a French guy [Etienne Donnet, ATP ranked #544] and then I lost in the semi-final of the last week against the same player. There's always some who come and go, but most of the same players stayed for the three weeks. But at the last tournament, there were more guys who came from other places.
Chronicle.lu: What did winning that title mean for you personally and professionally?
Alex Knaff: It was really good because I hadn't won a title since 2023. It was also the first time that with my coach, Gilles [Muller], the two of us being on the road, we won a title together. The other times it was either at home or I was alone on the road. So that was big for us. I think that gave us confidence that the partnership works well together. We can win tough matches together. […] It showed that the work I had done before paid off, because last year I hadn't had that many good results. I struggled a bit also mentally. And so yeah, that was just kind of also a confirmation from the match I had at Davis Cup that I can do the same thing individually.
Chronicle.lu: Looking ahead, where do you plan to compete next?
Alex Knaff: […] Then I'm going to play Nottingham. It's a $25,000 tournament [ITF M25 Nottingham] and then I'll either go to Greece or Georgia to play 25K and a mix of challengers. And then there's also the Games of the Small States [The 2025 Games of the Small States of Europe in Andorra]. So that's kind of the next few weeks.
Chronicle.lu: At the end of March, it was announced that Luxembourg would face Chile in the next Davis Cup round. What was your initial reaction to the draw?
Alex Knaff: It’s another long trip. We've been getting a lot of long trips lately, but it's going to be a good challenge, I think. It's also a country I've never been to, so it's going to be a good experience. South Americans, they're known to be super cheerful for the team — sometimes too much. It's going to be a tough experience; they have a lot of good players. One of my favourite player [Nicolas Jarry] is actually from there, so it's going to be good to kind of see how they play. Also to play, it's going to be a big challenge, but we have nothing to lose. So we go there with low expectations. We give everything. And we've shown that in Davis Cup, anything can happen. And maybe they take us for granted. They think we suck or I don't know. And then we create a big surprise.
Chronicle.lu: Luxembourg will go into the match as the underdog. What is your mindset going into such a challenge?
Alex Knaff: With Lithuania, we were also the underdog, but I think this time it's another step above. They have three Top-100 players [ATP ranking], I think. So it's a team that, in my opinion, could be in the world group pretty easily. So I think it's a step above Lithuania. But yeah, we've shown that even as outsiders, we can win. So I definitely don't think that we're going there believing we have no chance. We know that in sport you have to play the match. It's not on paper that the difference is made.
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