Alex Rovello’s life was cut short Saturday in a cliff diving accident, tragically ending a promising tennis career. Rovello was among Oregon’s best overall players this season, playing out of the No. 1 singles spot.
Playing at Cleveland High School in Portland, Rovello sparked the interest of college programs across the nation after becoming the first player in Oregon to win four consecutive 5A state titles — it’s been done one other time, in the 6A division. Rovello held an unmatchable 50-0 singles record while also going 65-2 in the Pacific Northwest. He was ranked as high as No. 24 in the nation and won two Pacific Cup titles. Rovello is still widely considered to be the best player in Cleveland tennis history and possibly the state. His unblemished high school career earned him a spot in Sports Illustrated’s Faces In the Crowd, a weekly feature spotlighting the best prep athletes in the nation.
“Alex is unusual,” his high school coach, Darryl Kealy, told KATU in 2010. “He does it his way.”
His way has meant winning with speed and skill to make up for his size. At just 5-foot-8 and about 140 pounds, Rovello made for an undersized tennis player, not that it ever seemed to stop him.
“A lot of people win with their height,” Rovello said at the time. “But I try and win with speed and everything.”
Rovello compensated for his smaller size with a two-handed swing on both forehands and backhands. It’s unconventional, especially on forehands, but it always seemed to work for the junior. Rovello began to develop that stroke in high school.
He was rated the No. 45 tennis prospect nationally and chose Oregon over New Mexico for his collegiate career.
This season, Rovello recorded an impressive 21-8 record in singles play and added 18 doubles wins in a memorable season for the Ducks, and really began to take on a veteran leadership role. Rovello recorded 16 of those doubles wins with Daan Maasland, the eighth-most in school history. The pair was ranked among the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s top 10.
Last season Rovello played the No. 1 singles position, recording 21 wins to lead the team. Rovello reached double-digit victories in both singles and doubles all three years he was at Oregon, making him the winningest player on the Ducks’ roster.
Put simply, Rovello was a winner.
“He is probably one of the most competitive guys I’ve ever been around. It comes very natural for him,”Oregon tennis head coach Nils Schyllander said last year. “I think he has that something you can’t teach, he has the fire that some people just have.”