Five Male Champions You Haven't Heard Of
This year at the US Open, we were treated to a lot of outer-court players who seem to have popped out of the woodwork; never seen before, never heard of, but with surprising amounts of talent and potential. Some of the more outstanding male player debuts
we’ve seen so far in the past few years include the following.
Andrey Golubev: this 23 year old player has a career high ranking of World Number 26. He emerged this year with a victory at the 2010 International German Open, defeating World Number 6 Nikolay Davydenko and World Number
13 Jurgen Melzer in the process. Although he did not progress past the first round of the US Open, which he played against World Number 9 Mikhail Youzhny, Golubev is definitely one to watch out for.
Sergiy Stakhovsky: Bearing an eery resemblance to Swiss Robin Soderling, this 24 year old player from Ukraine has climbed the ATP rankings to get as high as Number 32, his current ranking. This year, he beat Janko Tipsarevic to claim the
title at the UNICEF Open in s’Hertogenbosch. He has also earned himself a title at New Haven. Stakhovsky made it to the third round at the US Open, defeating Peter Luczak and Ryan Harrison, before falling to Feliciano Lopez.
Denis Istomin: 24 year old Denis Istomin is the first player from Uzbekistan to make it to the third round of a Grand Slam tournament, this year’s Australian Open, where he was beaten by Novak Djokovic. He also made it to the semi finals
at the New Haven ATP tournament, where he was defeated by Fernando Verdasco. Due to third-round appearances at tournaments like Wimbledon and the French Open, he reached his career high ranking of World Number 39. Istomin beat his first round opponent, Maximo
Gonzalez, but fell to eventual champion Rafael “Rafa” Nadal in the second round. This lowered his ranking by three places, to Number 42.
Thiemo de Bakker: the 22 year old Dutch player has been catching attention since his victory at the boys’ championship at the 2006 Wimbledon. His highest career ranking is World Number 40. He is currently ranked at 46. This year, his success
includes defeating John Isner, World Number 23, at Wimbledon, and upsetting World Number 12 Jo-Wilfred Tsonga to make it to the Barcelona semi final. At the US Open, de Bakker defeated Marc Gicquel and Ivan Dodig. He was eventually defeated in the third round
by Robin Soderling.
Somdev Devvarman: One of the few singles players from India these days, Devvarman has made it to World Number 96 in his career. He defeated John Isner to win the NCAA Championship in 2007. He has played qualifying rounds at many top events
in 2008. This year, he made it to the fourth round of the ATP World Tour 500 series Dubai Tennis Championships before losing to Marcos Baghdatis. He also participated in the doubles at Wimbledon with his partner, Treat Huey, and was beaten by Aisam-ul-Haq
Qureshi and Rohan Bopanna. Devvarman leads India’s team at the Davis Cup tournament. At the US Open, he was defeated in the first round by Kevin Anderson.
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