Irakli Labadze!!

Ok, how many of you have heard of this guy? he has the same coach as me, but i have never heard of him until my coach told me that he is playing james blake tomorrow night. so... watch out for Irakli Labadze tomorrow night because my coach says so

[thatballwas_IN]

he uses the right racquet, go PRESTIGE!

[guernica1]

The first time I ever heard of this guy he was a very small paragraph in a TEnnis magazine article about life on the satellite tour, this was about 5 years ago. Basically it described how everyone was struggling but he was this intense looking 18 year old kid who actually appeared to have the game and confidence to make it. As an aside I thought that was one of the best written articles in Tennis magazine and have kind of followed this guy since.

The first time I saw him play was on an outside court at the 1st round of Nasdaq against Andrei Stoliarov with about 10 other people watching including the coaches.

Looked like a tank job by that point I think he was hurting in his leg or something but you could tell he had a very nice natural motion and a well struck forehand. Bit of a headcase.

I think its good for the tour to have a good number of guys who come from very small under-represented countries so glad to see he is starting to recognize his talents.

[tennisozzy_new]

Saw him play live in Rome last year against Magnus Norman. He lost, but hit a lot of ridiculous winner off both wings. Very flat strokes, seemed to have poor shot selection.