Aleksey Savrasenko

Alexei Dmitrievich Sawrasenko (Russian Алексей Дмитриевич Саврасенко; born February 28, 1979 in Krasnodar, RSFSR ) is a Russian professional basketball player. Sawrasenko first played in Greece in particular at Olympiakos Piraeus and has Greek citizenship. His Greek name is Alexis Amanatidis (Greek Αλέξης Αμανατίδης ). In 2002 he went back to his homeland. With the Russian national team Sawrasenko was 2007 European Champion at the European Basketball Championships. At the time (2012 /13) Sawrasenko is active for locomotive Kuban Krasnodar.

Club career

Greece

Sawrasenko went early on to Olympiakos Piraeus abroad and made his debut there as early as the 1995/ 96 and just under 17 years. He took the Greek nationality, so as not to burden the foreigner quota Olympiakos continued, but was mostly used under coach Dušan Ivković only as a reserve player from the bench. With Olympiakos Sawrasenko won the Greek Cup in 1996 and 1997, even triple, as they won against FC Barcelona in Euro League FIBA. Olympiakos had the frontcourt positions, among others, Panagiotis Fasoulas, Dragan Tarlać and the German Christian Welp busy so Sawrasenko did not play as a junior player during the Final Four tournament. Two years later they made ​​it again in 1999 in the Final Four tournament of the main European Cup competition and took third place. As Sawrasenko wanted to compete in the 2000 Olympics for the Russian national team, there was a similar controversy as Tarlać to his Greek citizenship. Since Olympiakos took the Greek citizenship of Sawrasenko commitment to further Legionaries, it had no interest in that Sawrasenko counted as a Russian. Sawrasenko finally decided to participate in the Olympic Games.

In the following season 2000/ 01 Sawrasenko was on loan to the Athens suburb of Peristeri GS club, which also previously played the " Serbo- Greek" Marko Jarić and Milan Gurović. With the help of Euro League top scorer Alphonso Ford managed to Peristeri first knockout round of the inaugural played ULEB Euro League 2000 / 01, the old FIBA Euro League and the European Champions Cup replaced in 2001. In Peristeri Sawrasenko was now permanently employed and had in the Euro League at an operating time of over 26 minutes per game over 9 points and 7 rebounds in just under average. In the Greek Championship is bowed out against his former club Olympiakos, to which he subsequently returned. With Olympiakos he had to retire in the second group stage of the top sixteen teams in the ULEB Euro League 2001 /02 against the eventual winners and Greek arch-rivals Panathinaikos Athens, the one defeated in the semifinals of the Greek Cup, but then the final series for the championship against AEK Athens lost. In December 2002 Sawrasenko Olympiakos left and returned to his native Russia.

Russia

In February 2003 Sawrasenko CSKA Moscow joined previously in 2001 and 2002 for the first time had to leave the Russian Ural Great Perm Championship title to. With CSKA he not only won the Russian Championship in all subsequent years, it also achieved in all seasons at this club the Final Four tournament of the main European club competition ULEB Euro League. After a fourth place in 2003 and 2005 and a third place you won the competition in 2006 with a victory in the final over defending champion Maccabi Tel Aviv. They repeated this success in 2008 against the same opponents, as defending champion lost to 2007 against Panathinaikos Athens. From 2005 to 2007 they also won the Russian Cup competition and took the Russian double. With the Triple 2006 Sawrasenko is so beside Šarūnas Jasikevičius and his Moscow teammate David Andersen and Matjaž Smodiš one of the few players to have won a Triple, including the Euro League with two different clubs. In January 2009 Sawrasenko CSKA left and joined to the end of the season from Spartak Saint Petersburg. With Spartak were beaten in the play-off quarter-final series of the Russian Championship somewhat surprising third-placed Dynamo Moscow and then finished fourth in the Russian league.

For the 2009/10 season Sawrasenko signed a contract with Dynamo and thus returned to Moscow. Dynamo played this season under coach Sergei Basarewitsch without Legionaries and reached in the Russian championship a remarkable fourth place. In the second most important European club competition Eurocup 2009/10, however, was no chance and lost all six group matches. For the 2010/11 season he signed then as Sergei Monya a contract with the runners-up from the Moscow suburb of Khimki. With BK Khimki they lost again the final series at the Russian Cup against CSKA. For this one could defeat this opponent in the Eastern European VTB United League after a tight final success and win the title for Khimki. About the qualification you also reached the ULEB Euro Cup 2010/ 11, where you can almost eliminated with BK Khimki in the preliminary round. In the season 2011/12 Sawrasenko signed with UNICS from Kazan. UNICS is 2011/12 qualified as winner of the Eurocup 2010/11 directly for the ULEB Euro League, so that Sawrasenko was involved except for the season 2009/10 at each discharge of the ULEB Euro League. For the 2012/13 season Sawrasenko locomotive moved to Kuban Krasnodar with whom he won the Eurocup in the same season.

National

After Sawrasenko at the 2000 Olympic Games could not attend, he first played in the Eurobasket 2001 in the Russian national team. In the quarterfinals they lost to eventual bronze medalist Spain and reached after two wins in the placement round to fifth place and qualification for the 2002 World Cup. During the 2002 World Cup they lost their opening game against the eventual semi-finalists New Zealand and the eventual runners-up Argentina. After an expected win over Venezuela followed in the second round further defeats against the hosts United States and later bronze medalist Germany. In the end it was enough even for tenth place in this World Cup.

At Euro 2003, they won in the first round over defending champion Serbia and Montenegro, but lost in the quarter- final against France and all remaining placement matches. In the end they finished eighth and missed qualifying for the Olympic Games 2004. During the 2005 European Championships they won convincingly the first two games, but then lost in succession against the eventual finalists Germany, in the quarterfinals to eventual champions Greece and all subsequent placement games. At the end, once again took the eighth place and thus also missed qualifying for the 2006 World Cup.

2006 David became Journal of Russian national team coach and has successfully qualified the team for the final round of the 2007 European Championships. In the finals they won all the games up to a significant defeat in the second round against host Spain. In the final, scored again to Spain and was able to wrestle with a point the favored hosts in the final minute. This also participating in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing was reached. At the games disappointed the European champion and won only one group match and retired early. This was Sawrasenkos last finals appearance with the Russian national team.

Achievements

• European Champion 2007
• Winner of the Euro League ( 3x): 1997, 2006, 2008
• Winner of the Eurocup 2013
• Champion Russia ( 6x): 2003-2008
• Champions Greece ( 2x): 1996, 1997