Mikhail Youzhny vs Ernests Gulbis – Opening Round Preview: US Open 2011
Russia’s number one tennis player, Mikhail Youzhny, will start off his US Open campaign by taking on the 53rd ranked Latvian competitor, Ernests Gulbis, in the opening round clash on Tuesday afternoon.
The contest will be played on the outdoor hard courts of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows Park, of Queens, New York City, United States, with the winner of the match getting through to the second
round of the last Grand Slam tournament of the current year.
Rated at number 15 in the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Rankings, Youzhny has been in a decent form this season so far. The Russian has a 20-18 winning record for the current year and hasn’t bagged a championship
title this season. Winner of seven ATP titles, Youzhny is seeded at number 16 in the US Open draws and is among one of the strong competitors to beat on hard surface.
The Russian took part in the Cincinnati Masters, which was the last stop before the US Open, but suffered a humiliating defeat in the very first round at the hands of the unseeded French competitor, Michael Llodra. Youzhny will
certainly desire to do much better this time round and go a long way in his voyage at the US Open.
The other competitor, Gulbis, is unseeded in the tournament and one of the rising stars of the year. His ranking has fallen considerably in the past six months, as he dropped to number 53 from his career best ranking of world number
21 since February. The Latvian has won 16 singles encounters this season so far and has faced defeat at an equal number of occurrences in the current year.
The Latvian won his second ATP championship title last month, when he outplayed the world number eight, Mardy Fish of the United States, 5–7, 6–4, 6–4, in the final of the Farmers Classic to break in to the winners’ circle for
the first time this season. Gulbis went through the qualifying rounds to make it to the main draws of the Cincinnati Masters, his most recently played tournament, but unfortunately, he was outdone by Croatia’s Ivan Dodig in the very first round.
The Latvian is currently running a two-match winning streak against Youzhny, as he outplayed the Russian on two different occasions during the last year to lead the all-time head-to-head series against him by 2-1. Gulbis first
defeated Youzhny at Madrid Masters in straight sets and again stood victorious at 2010 Paris Masters, as the Russian retired in the second set for the reason of injury.
Being the world number 15, Youzhny should have no real trouble in disposing off the 53rd ranked competitor in Tuesday’s contest but Gulbis can be as good as any other top class player on his day. The Latvian’s last two
victories over Youzhny must be a great source of confidence for him in the opening round clash of the US Open but he will have to put up a valiant effort to take down the Russian.
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