Brought up by his grandparents when he was a young boy, he started to play tennis at age seven since there were two hard and two clay courts just a few hundred meters from where he lived...Went to the courts with friends where coach saw him and asked to come again to train...His grandmother, Ninel Kislovskaya, and grandfather, Nikolay Kislovskiy, have since become big tennis fans and used to travel with him to tournaments...Plans to spend about half year living and training in northern California with countryman Dmitry Tursunov in 2007 and half year in Moscow, where he trains at CSKA (since age 18).

Originally from Vladivostok which is on the eastern coast of Russia, more than a nine hour flight from the capital...Also swam and played basketball as a youth, but tennis was the only sport he was serious about...Is known to be an excellent gourmet cook of Italian foods and loves going to good restaurants...Used to work with Ricardo Piatti and became interested in cooking with his mother...Speaks English and Italian along with his Russian...Considers hard courts as favorite surface and best part of his game is groundstrokes/baseline play...Wife, Irina (married Dec. 8, 2005)...Coached by Allen Fox.