Top ten beckons for Mikhail Youzhny in 2010?

Question

Mikhail Youzhny has reached his second ATP Tour final of 2010 at the Dubai Tennis Championships and is in good form. Can the current world No. 15 break into the top 10 this year?

Answer 1

Youzhny will make some gains whether he wins or loses the Dubai final, he’s set to move past current No. 14 Radek Stepanek in next week’s rankings regardless of the result. If Youzhny can keep up this form then a place at the tail end of the top 10 is not out of reach BUT there is a lot of quality competition to get past if he’s to do that. Here’s a list (in order) of the current No. 8 to No. 12 ranked players to give some idea of the task he’s facing: Andy Roddick, Marin Cilic, Fernando Verdasco, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Fernando Gonzalez. Put in that context, a retaining a top 15 place seems a lot more likely outcome for the Russian.