Biography

Mikhail Youzhny was born in Moscow, on July 25^th 1982. His father Mikhail Youzhny-senior (a militarian, then a businessman) and his mother Lubov (an economist) were huge tennis fans and brought their sons (Misha and his older brother Andrei) to the court. Misha was 6, Andrei � 8.

Their first coach was Igor Volkov. He says: �We had some problems with Mikhail�s temper, but his brother Andrei and his father did very much for Misha to become who he is now.�

Andrei played ATP tournaments for a while, but he had to finish his career, because Misha made better progress and it was hard for the family to support two sons playing tennis professionally.

After graduating from Russian State Academy of Physical Education, where Misha also studied, Andrei became a hitting partner (a sparring partner?) for Misha who was making huge progress in tennis.

Mikhail attracted attention of Boris Sobkin, a professor of technical studies who used to be a teacher in Moscow Aircraft Institute. He noticed that Misha was very diligent and agreed to patronize him. Then came long hours of ezhausting practice and first results - victories at junior tournaments.

It�s important to mention that Mikhail was a ball kid at the historical Davis Cup Final and gave balls to great Pete Sampras. After the match Misha took a photo with Pete and was very proud of it.

And during the semi-final�s Davis Cup match in the same 1995 he managed to appropriate Andrei Chesnokov�s trainers � he won back 11 matchpoints wearing them.

In 1999 Mikhail became a professional player, was in the draws of the main tournaments and started his ascent by the APT stairs. He won his first title in Stuttgard in July 2002.

However (destiny�s irony!) that year was a year of difficult ordeals. After that successful tournament, beeing in Moscow already, Misha and Andrei were coming back from practice and the car accident happened. After that Misha had to miss a month of practising due to the brain concussion  and numerous injuries and he didn�t go to the US Open. Andrei was also injured quite seriously.

After Davis Cup semi-final they lost the closest men in their life � their father. He died of a heart attack. Misha was very depressed, but nevertheless a week later he played at the Kremlin Cup.

And that year in December the most long-looked-for event for Russian fans and players happened � Russian team won the Davis Cup. In the last 5^th rubber he replaced Evgeniy Kafelnikov who wasn�t in his best shape at that moment. That was really a dramatic match. Misha lost two first sets without any resistance. However then, as he says, he �just decided to play his tennis�. And he won impressively!