Andrey Time

It's time to talk about Andrey. And by talk, I mean gush.

I told you this kid was awesome! I told you that he was on the way up! And I was right!

Is this an upset of Soderling I see before me, belonging to Andrey? Why yes, it is. The Golubev freight train is picking up steam and it is powering onwards and upwards. Not only has he upset Soderling in convincing straights, but now Ferrer? Kid just doesn't know his place, and I love it.

The first time I ever really watched Golubev play, I was on a plane from Melbourne to Perth. I was flying there for a couple of days of the Hopman Cup, and I was watching one of the night ties on that little plane TV. It was Russia vs Kazakhstan, and Igor Andreev was taking on some kid called Andrey Golubev. Who is this kid?

I found out soon enough, when Golubev prevented Andreev from hitting a single winner for a set and a half. He was a demolition machine that week - that kid is something else. The Hopman Cup is a good place to capture the much-coveted attention of Jodi, and he did it in spades.

It could have just been a good week. But no, ever since he won his first title a couple of months ago, Andrey has been 100% solid awesome. He's improved his ranking by about 70 places since the beginning of the year, and now he's in the finals of Kuala Lumpur, it's only going to go up.

And trust me, if the kid can beat Soderling and Ferrer back to back, he can totally take Youzhny. Watch out, Headbanger!