Russian rebound opens Legg Mason
By: Craig Stouffer
Examiner Staff Writer
August 4, 2009
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| Mikhail Youzhny parlayed a first-set rally into a 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 victory over Robert Kendrick Monday at Legg Mason. (Getty Images) |
Former Cavalier Devvarman advances
More than six years passed between the time that Mikhail Youzhny first cracked the ATP's top 100 players in the world (January 2001) and when he earned his first top-10 ranking (August 2007). As recently as 18 months ago, he had reached as high as No. 8.
His career has taken some precipitous steps backward since, and showed early signs of falling further in his opening-round match of the 2009 Legg Mason Classic. But after an admittedly sluggish start, the Russian parlayed a first-set rally into a 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 victory over Robert Kendrick on the William H. G. FitzGerald Center Stadium Court.
"I'm going back much faster," said Youzhny of his No. 65 ranking, which was as high as 76 earlier this year (his 2009 record is 22-20). "But I can come back now."
In his first outdoor hard court appearance of the summer, and first match on this side of the Atlantic Ocean following three straight European clay court tournaments, Youzhny said he was slow from the moment Kendrick hit the afternoon's first serve.
"He just put the ball in, and I have already mistakes," said Youzhny, who spotted the 74th-ranked American consecutive unforced errors to open the match and eventually, a 5-2 lead.
But Kendrick drew from an even deeper arsenal of mistakes, double-faulting on each of Youzhny's only two break-point opportunities of the first set. Youzhny dropped the only break point of the second set but waltzed through the third, winning the final five games to earn a second-round meeting with French Open finalist Robin Soderling.
Former Virginia star Somdev Devvarman was the only winner among the tournament's first four matches that didn't require a third set. But that wasn't before he squandered a two-break lead in the second set and allowed Yuichi Sugita to force a tiebreaker before prevailing with a 6-0, 7-6 (8-6) win.
"It definitely feels like a home crowd," said Devvarman, who was born and raised in India but makes his home in Charlottesville. He advanced to the Legg Mason quarterfinals as a tour rookie last year.
Devvarman will face sixth-seeded Marin Cilic in the second round. The two players last met in January at the final of the tournament Devvarman grew up attending, the Chennai Open. Cilic won that match, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3).
