Mikhail Youzhny earns a PhD degree, putting a cherry on his amazing season – Tennis News
Ranked 35th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings, Mikhail Youzhny of Russia completed his PhD in Philosophy after an exceptional tennis season. He not only participated at the ATP World Tour events and
became one of the best tennis players in the world but the Russian also continued his studies and earned a PhD degree in six years.
The 29-year-old Russian made a good start of the season as he made third round showing at the Australian Open, first of the four Grand Slam events held in January at Melbourne. He carried his winning ways in the next month and
made a quarter-final berth at Rotterdam, while staying in the top ten of the ATP rankings. Youzhny then cruised into the semis in Marseille before losing to Croat Marin Cilic.
Regardless of a bad patch in March and April as Youzhny exited from either the opening or the second round from all major events, he re-focused his strategy in the clay season and made a third round showing at the French Open.
The Russian later reached the final eight at Prostejov Challenger before retiring due to a left foot injury. He was forced to withdraw from the Gerry Weber Open in Halle and fell to world number seventeen.
Coming to the grass season, the beaming Russian made a fourth round berth at the Wimbledon Championships. He reached this spot for the sixth time in his career and lost to a former world number one, Swiss Roger Federer.
Youzhny then raised the bar of his game again and reached the final four in Hamburg (lost to fifth seed Gilles Simon). His performance led him climb to number 14 in the ATP rankings. The Russian kept his winning ways at the Gstaad
ATP event where he made another semi-final berth but fell to a four match losing streak, including an opening round exit from the US Open. His dismal performance lowered his ranking to world number thirty-seven.
Youzhny did made a quarter-final berth at Beijing and a semi-final appearance at St. Petersburg after this. However, he is currently standing on a three match losing streak.
Despite failing to grab a single title this season, the Russian achieved something special, a PhD degree.
Dr. Youzhny didn’t earn the degree to help his tennis career. However, he thinks that PhD will help new coaches and young players understand all aspects of tennis. In addition to this, he believes he can take tennis to right direction
after earning this degree.
"This is my life; I have played tennis on the ATP World Tour all my life," said Youzhny. "I wanted to explain to young players and give them some information about what I think about tennis. So it is mainly for young players and
young coaches”
Youzhny started his studies in 2005 at the University of Moscow. He played tennis alongside and because of which the three years course took six years and the Russian eventually completed his degree in 2011.
"I didn’t mind if it took 5, 6, 7, 8 years, when I had some free time I could do it slowly. I feel good because I took the time to do what I wanted to do, I finished it, and I’m happy with that,” the excited Russian explained to
the ATP.
The high spirited Russian is eyeing to reach far at the Doha ATP World Tour event taking place on the hard courts in January, 2012.
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