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Mikhail Youzhny

Nickname(s)	Misha, Colonel
Country	Russia
Residence	Moscow, Russia
Date of birth	June 25, 1982 (1982-06-25) (age 27)
Place of birth	Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	73 kg (160 lb; 11.5 st)
Turned pro	1999
Plays	Right-handed; one-handed backhand
Career prize money	$6,164,083
Singles
Career record	296–225
Career titles	5
Highest ranking	No. 8 (28 January 2008)
Current ranking	No. 20 (11 January 2010)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	QF (2008)
French Open	4r (2007)
Wimbledon	4r (2001, 2002, 2005, 2007, 2008)
US Open	SF (2006)
Doubles
Career record	88–108
Career titles	6
Highest ranking	No. 43 (11 September 2006)
Australian Open	2R (2002, 2003 , 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009)
French Open	3R (2006)
Wimbledon	1R (2004, 2006)
US Open	QF (2006)
Last updated on: 9 November 2009.

Mikhail Mikhailovich Youzhny (Russian: Михаил Михайлович Южный (help·info) (mixaˈil ˈjuʒnɨj) born 25 June 1982, in Moscow, USSR (now Russia), is a professional Russian tennis player, noted for his consistency and all-court play style.

The highest singles world ranking of his career was number eight, achieved on 28 January 2008.

Playing style and equipment

Youzhny has a unique backhand, in which he mainly hits one-handed, but also has somewhat of a hybrid reminiscent to that of Björn Borg. Youzhny at times will follow through his backhand with both hands, but with only his right hand on his racket. Even so, many consider his backhand to be his best shot. From both sides, Youzhny hits the ball on the rise, achieving a flatter trajectory. He has a good court sense and often makes use of dropshots.

Youzhny has a reputation for engaging the crowd, subsequently taking inspiration from it to attempt high-risk winners, especially when facing matchpoints. After each big victory Youzhny gives a military style salute to the spectators. He does it by holding the tennis racquet above his head with his left hand and saluting with his right hand.^[1] The racquet imitates a hat, since according to Russian military tradition one must wear a hat to give proper salute.^[2]

Youzhny represents Central Red Army Tennis Club, and is also an avid supporter of FC CSKA.

As for his equipment, he wears the adidas Edge Group clothing and Barricade V shoes and uses a Head MicroGel Extreme Pro racquet.

Career

In 1999, the year in which he turned professional, Youzhny captured four titles on the Futures tour.

2000-06

In 2000, he reached his first ATP tour quarterfinal in Moscow.

In 2001, he reached the third round of the Australian Open, made his first ATP tour semifinal at Copenhagen, and reached the fourth round of Wimbledon, losing to eventual finalist Patrick Rafter. Youzhny also reached the third round at the US Open, losing to eventual finalist Pete Sampras.

The following year in 2002, Youzhny captured in Stuttgart his first ATP title, and led Russia to its first Davis Cup title, but he did not play for six weeks due to a back injury. By winning this match, Youzhny became the first ever player to recover successfully from a two sets to love deficit in the live fifth rubber of a Davis Cup Final.^[3]

During 2004 he won a career-high 42 matches, finishing the year in the top 20.

One of his best tournaments was the 2006 U.S. Open. Having beaten Tommy Robredo 6–2, 6–0, 6–1 he defeated World No. 2 Rafael Nadal 6–3, 5–7, 7–6, 6–1 in the quarterfinal. He lost in the semi-finals to Andy Roddick 6–7 6–0 7–6 6–3. In the men's doubles, Youzhny partnered Leoš Friedl; together they defeated the world's number one pairing, Bob and Mike Bryan in the round of 16, before losing to Martin Damm and Leander Paes in the quarterfinals.

2007

At the start of the year Youzhny reached the 3rd round of the Australian Open, losing to eventual champion world number one Roger Federer. He then reached the semifinals of Zagreb and won his third career ATP title in Rotterdam. Later in March he reached the final in Dubai, having defeated the second-seed Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals. He lost 6–4, 6–3 to Federer. His good form continued a few weeks later at Munich, where he reached the final, losing to first-time finalist Philipp Kohlschreiber 2–6 6–3 6-4. Youhzny, in the 2007 French Open Fourth Round, once again faced Federer, this time succumbing 7–6, 6–4, 6–4. This run pushed him to a career high of number 14 in the world. Immediately before Wimbledon he benefited from Gasquet's poor title defence at Nottingham, and rose to world number 13, despite not playing himself that week. Later in the year he reached the 3rd round of the Canadian Masters, losing to Nikolay Davydenko—this took him into the world top ten.

2008

Youzhny's first tournament of 2008 was Chennai in India. He reached the final, where he beat Rafael Nadal, the top seed, 6–0, 6–1 in under an hour. However, the scoreline does not reflect the circumstances, Nadal's semi-final finished mere hours beforehand and he had little rest. In the Australian Open Youzhny, for the first time in his career, beat Nikolay Davydenko. He fell in the quarter-finals to eventual finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

On 1 April in the Miami Masters, Youzhny was 4-5 down with Nicolas Almagro serving in the final set, he hit a relatively easy return into the net. He gestured angrily towards his own temple, and then hit his head strongly with the edge of frame of his tennis racket three times, drawing blood. Despite this—and after receiving medical attention—he won the next seven points, taking the tiebreaker and also the match. He then played with Russia in the ARAG World Tennis Team Cup and reached the final, before losing to Sweden.

After Wimbledon - where he lost in the fourth round to eventual champion Rafael Nadal - Youzhny hasn't won three matches in a row, suffering first-round losses at the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters (Cincinnati, Ohio), the 2008 Madrid Masters and the BNP Paribas Masters. At the Summer Olympics in Beijing, Youzhny lost in the third round to eventual bronze medal winner Novak Djokovic.

2009

Youzhny didn't start well at the first tournaments in 2009, losing in the first round of the Australian Open to 183-ranked Stefan Koubek in straight sets 3-6 2-6 2-6. He reached back-to-back quarterfinals at ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam and the Marseille Open, defeating David Ferrer and Tomas Berdych on his way.

In the Davis Cup first round tie against Romania, he won his singles match against Victor Hanescu in straight sets 6-4 6-4 6-2. Russia eventually won the tie 4-1 with a lone loss in the doubles rubber.

At Queens Club, he paired up with doubles veteran Wesley Moodie and won the doubles title in their debut.

Heavily favored Russia was hosted by Israel in a Davis Cup quarter-final tie in July 2009, on indoor hard courts at the Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv. Russia had won the Davis Cup in both 2002 and 2006, and was the top-ranked country in Davis Cup standings.^[4] The Israeli team beat the Russian team in each of their first three matches, thereby winning the tie. Harel Levy (world # 210) first beat Andreev (world # 24). Dudi Sela (# 33) followed by beating Youzhny 3-6, 6-1, 6-0, 7-5. "This is a bit of a surprise," Youzhny remarked.^[5] He said he was very disappointed, and added: "I began very well, but after I took the first set, my luck fell away."^[6] The next day Israelis Andy Ram and Jonathan Erlich beat Safin and doubles specialist Kunitsyn.^[7] With the tie clinched for Israel, the reverse singles rubbers were "dead", and instead of best-of-five matches, best-of-three sets were played, with the outcomes of little to no importance.^[8] Israel wrapped up a 4-1 victory over Russia, splitting the final matches.^[9]

He made the finals at the Japan Open in Tokyo, after beating Lleyton Hewitt for the first time in a grueling 6–2 5–7 7–5 win. In the final, he faced no.2 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga but was ousted 3–6 3–6. He then clinched his first title in 2009 at the 2009 Kremlin Cup where he defeated Janko Tipsarevic 6-7(5), 6-0, 6-4. After the back-to-back tournaments, Youzhny retired in the second round at St. Petersburg. Youzhny then played at Valencia Open. He defeated both Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gilles Simon to advance to the semifinals where he beat second seed compatriot Nikolay Davydenko. He lost to Andy Murray in the final 6-3, 6-2. After his performance in Valencia, Youzhny is assured of breaking back into the top 20.

Career finals

Singles: 12 (5-7)

Wins (5)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
1.	15 July 2002	Stuttgart, Germany	Clay	Guillermo Cañas	6–3, 3–6, 3–6, 6–4, 6–4
2.	25 October 2004	St. Petersburg, Russia	Carpet (i)	Karol Beck	6–2, 6–2
3.	19 February 2007	Rotterdam, Netherlands	Hard (i)	Ivan Ljubičić	6–2, 6–4
4.	6 January 2008	Chennai, India	Hard	Rafael Nadal	6–0, 6–1
5.	25 October 2009	Moscow, Russia	Hard (i)	Janko Tipsarević	6–7(5), 6–0, 6–4

Runner-ups (7)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
1.	28 October 2002	St. Petersburg, Russia	Hard (i)	Sébastien Grosjean	7–5, 6–4
2.	20 Sept. 2004	Beijing, China	Hard	Marat Safin	7–6(4), 7–5
3.	3 March 2007	Dubai, United Arab Emirates	Hard	Roger Federer	6–4, 6–3
4.	6 May 2007	Munich, Germany	Clay	Philipp Kohlschreiber	2–6, 6–3, 6–4
5.	10 May 2009	Munich, Germany	Clay	Tomáš Berdych	6–4, 4–6, 7–6(5)
6.	11 October 2009	Tokyo, Japan	Hard	Jo-Wilfried Tsonga	6–3, 6–3
7.	8 November 2009	Valencia, Spain	Hard (i)	Andy Murray	6–3, 6–2

Doubles: 9 (6-3)

Wins (6)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score
1.	17 October 2005	Moscow, Russia	Carpet (I)	Max Mirnyi	Igor Andreev Nikolay Davydenko	6–1, 6–1
2.	7 January 2007	Doha, Qatar	Hard	Nenad Zimonjić	Martin Damm Leander Paes	6–1, 7–6(3)
3.	6 May 2007	Munich, Germany	Clay	Philipp Kohlschreiber	Jan Hájek Jaroslav Levinský	6–1, 6–4
4.	15 June 2008	Halle, Germany	Grass	Mischa Zverev	Lukáš Dlouhý Leander Paes	3–6, 6–4, [10–3]
5.	5 October 2008	Tokyo, Japan	Hard	Mischa Zverev	Lukáš Dlouhý Leander Paes	6–3, 6–4
6.	14 June 2009	London (Queen's Club), U.K.	Grass	Wesley Moodie	Marcelo Melo André Sá	6–4, 4–6, [10–6]

Singles performance timeline

To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only after a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded. Davis Cup matches are included in the statistics. This table is current through the 2009 Cincinnati Masters.

A = did not participate in the tournament.

LQ = lost in the qualifying draw.

SR = the ratio of the number of singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played.

References

External links

• Mikhail Youzhny at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Mikhail Youzhny at the International Tennis Federation
• Mikhail Youzhny at Davis Cup
• Youzhny Recent Match Results
• Youzhny World Ranking History

Association of Tennis Professionals: Top ten Russian male singles tennis players as of January 11, 2010 1. Nikolay Davydenko (6 ▬) 2. Mikhail Youzhny (20 ▼1) 3. Igor Andreev (36 ▼1) 4. Evgeny Korolev (52 ▲1) 5. Dmitry Tursunov (89 ▬) 6. Igor Kunitsyn (104 ▬) 7. Teimuraz Gabashvili (105 ▲1) 8. Alexandre Kudryavtsev (205 ▬) 9. Konstantin Kravchuk (242 ▼2) 10. Evgeny Kirillov (274 ▼1)