Education
3 junior player and finished runner-up in the boy"s singles at the United States Open (lost to David Wheaton in the final).
3 junior player and finished runner-up in the boy"s singles at the United States Open (lost to David Wheaton in the final).
Born in Ufa, Soviet Union, Cherkasov first came to the tennis world"s attention as an outstanding junior player. In 1987, he was ranked the World Number. Cherkasov turned professional in 1988.
He also reached the quarter-finals of the 1990 Australian Open and United States Open.
Cherkasov reached his career-high singles ranking of World Number. 13 in June that year.
In the end, his two victories at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow proved to be the only top-level titles of Cherkasov"s career. He retired from the professional tour in 2000, having earned prize-money totalling $2,259,875.
Singles finals 6 (2–4)
Doubles finals 2 (0–2).
In 1990, Cherkasov claimed his first top-level singles titles when he won the inaugural Kremlin Cup in Moscow, defeating Tim Mayotte in the final 6–2, 6–1. 1991 saw Cherkasov successfully defend his Kremlin Cup title, saving two match points in a 7–6, 3–6, 7–6 win in the final against Jakob Hlasek. In 1992, Cherkasov was a quarter-finalist at the French Open and won a men"s singles Bronze Medal at the Olympic Games in Barcelona, notably rallying from 2 sets down to beat Pete Sampras in the third round. In 1993, Cherkasov saved three match points in 3-hour, 54-minute quarter-final victory over Italy"s Andrea Gaudenzi at Tel Aviv, to win 6–7, 7–6, 7–5 in what was the longest best-of-three set match in tour history.
