When addressing Youzhny do we call him Colonel or Doctor?

After coming from behind to beat Lleyton Hewitt in the fourth round of the U.S. Open on Tuesday, Mikhail Youzhny was asked how he’d play against his next opponent, No. 1 Novak Djokovic.

“Not now, sorry,” Youzhny said in his postmatch news conference.

But Youzhny, a 31-year-old Russian who has twice reached a U.S. Open semifinal, already laid out his strategy for facing Djokovic, and other top players. It just happened in the last place you’d expect to see it from a professional tennis player: in his PhD thesis. Dr. Youzhny has a graduate degree from the Russian State University of Physical Education, Sport, Youth and Tourism, which he earned two years ago by writing a thesis that consisted of something few tennis players bother doing at all: analyzing video of other players.

The thesis, which was reviewed and translated from the original Russian by The Wall Street Journal, makes it clear that Youzhny thinks he’s on to something. “In the training done ahead of the match with a specific rival it is necessary to pay attention to the planning of the tactical combinations in playing of the decisive points taking into the account both one’s own technical and physical capabilities and the opponent’s technical and tactical capabilities,” he wrote.

Youzhny, who has a career record of 3-5 against Djokovic (0-1 since he’s written the thesis) spends 16 pages and lots of charts analyzing his matches between “the athlete” — Youzhny — and “the rival” — Djokovic. But in the end, he finds that when he does try to exploit opportunities they can backfire.

Youzhny, who has reached a peak ranking of No. 8 in the world in 2008 and has earned nearly $11 million in career prize money, writes in his paper that after analyzing two earlier matches between the two, he noticed Djokovic erred more on returning serves directed to his backhand side than to his forehand side. In the next match he tried to capitalize on that and after studying Djokovic’s groundstrokes during rallies from earlier meetings, Youzhny for one match targeted Djokovic’s forehand.

So far, the work hasn’t paid off. When Youzhny tried to go after Djokovic’s backhand return, he found it much improved — Djokovic was actually making more of them than forehand returns. “Unfortunately, in the course of the match no attention was paid to this fact and a large number of serves was directed to the rival to be struck from the left,” Youzhny wrote. When he targeted the forehand in the later match, he also found that Djokovic could beat the tactic by directing forehands just about anywhere on the court, which created more work for him as he was forced to defend new angles of the court.

“It may have been a tactical error,” Youzhny wrote.

Later, he settled on the strategy of directing an equal number of balls after the serve to the forehand and backhand side.

Youzhny’s analysis also demonstrates the shortcomings of relying on a limited data set in breaking down an opponent’s game. For instance, his breakdown of their meeting in Rotterdam in 2007 revealed that Djokovic erred on backhands down the line far more often than he hit winners. But Djokovic’s down-the-line backhand is often lethal.

Confusingly, Youzhny keeps referring to matches against Djokovic in Munich and Montreal in 2010. They played in Montreal in 2009, and in Dubai in 2010. They didn’t meet in Montreal in 2010 and have never faced each other in Munich.

Andy Murray, whom Youzhny might play in the U.S. Open semifinals if he upsets Djokovic on Thursday, was another subject of Youzhny’s analysis. This emerged during Wimbledon, when Youzhny advanced to a fourth-round meeting with the British No. 1. The British press got wind of Youzhny’s thesis and asked him what he found about Murray, but Youzhny wouldn’t say. Whatever he found hasn’t helped him much: Youzhny is 0-4 against Murray, and has lost the last eight sets they’ve played, including all three at Wimbledon.

Youzhny does appear to have learned two important lessons from video analysis: (1) watching a player’s more-recent matches, even against other opponents, can be fruitful; and (2) if tactics derived from video analysis don’t work, be prepared to change mid-match. These findings may have helped him in their most recent meeting, when Youzhny took a set off Djokovic at Monte Carlo, a tournament Djokovic went on to win by upsetting Rafael Nadal.

“Currently the level of playing of top Russian tennis players allows not only competing with the world’s top tennis players, but also winning over them in the top-notch competitions with the use of the reliable information on their technical and tactical condition,” Youzhny writes.

http://blogs.wsj.com/dailyfix/2013/09/05/youzhnys-thesis-for-beating-djokovic/

My favorite fact ever that Youzhny has a Phd in tennis from the Russian University of sport, youth, and tourism. One of my favorite players and this phd of tennis malarky has got to one of the funniest things I have ever heard. However the man clearly is a thoughtful tactician and a talented pro, and his mannerisms are so enjoyable. Please Mikhail for old times sake crunch another racquet on your dome.


I should go to Russia and teach a course on weak era theory and all of its implications. Please forward tuition fees directly to me and purchase my book online.

The guy is much smarter than the global image of the Russian who drew blood on his from smashing his racquet on his head. I think the Dr. is a bit of a misnomer, I dont know of many sports where cerebrals are celebrated with such a title except boxing... So Im sticking with Colonel

"Dr" belongs to Dr Ivo anyway...

Tipsarevic is another cerebral player, reads philosophy and has a degree in sports management.

Obvious answer...

Hes Colonel Doctor

When I speak to him, I call him Mikey.