Alex Molcan was born on December 1, 1997, in Presov, Slovakia, to Andrea Molcan, who is a physiotherapist. He began playing tennis at the age of 5. Molcan and his mother moved to Bratislava at age 12 to give him better training.
The Slovak began his career by competing on the ITF Futures Circuit. Between 2015 and 2018, he won three of those titles. The first was in Antalya in 2016 on hard courts, before collecting another two on clay in 2018 in Slovakia. Molcan then spent the next few years scrapping on the ATP Challenger Tour, struggling for much of this period.
After being the runner-up in Seville in 2018, it took him nearly three years to reach another Challenger final, which came in Prostejov. A major and unexpected breakthrough for Molcan came at the Belgrade Open in May 2021. As a qualifier, he had a sensational run to the final of the event. This was achieved with victories against Hamad Medjedovic, Peda Kristin, Fernando Verdasco, and Federico Delbonis. He lost the final to home favorite and legend of the sports Novak Djokovic.
The 2022 season was a very good one for Molcan. He reached his second ATP final at the Marrakech Open in April, triumphing against the No. 1 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime along the way. Despite winning the opening set, the Serbian was defeated 6-3, 3-6, 3-6 in the final by David Goffin.
Molcan progressed to a third ATP final the following month at the Lyon Open, with all three of these finals coming on clay. That run included overcoming Karen Khachanov and Alex de Minaur. Unfortunately, it was the third time unlucky in the final, falling on this occasion to Cameron Norrie.
2022 also saw Molcan make a maiden Grand Slam third-round appearance at Wimbledon. He beat Pedro Martinez and Marcos Giron, before being knocked out by Taylor Fritz. Molcan’s efforts in 2022 led to him finishing the season as the world No. 50.
Molcan's most notable part of 2023 was breaking new ground at the ATP Masters 1000 tournaments. He did this by reaching the third round at this level for the first time in Indian Wells before reaching the same stage at the Miami Open. However, 2023 was a difficult season overall for Molcan. This is demonstrated by his fall to a ranking of No. 119 by the end of the year.
