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  • Beijing first round: Juan Carlos Ferrero vs. Alexandre Kudryavtsev

    9/22/08 7:58 PM | Jonathan Morgan
    - The struggling former No. 1 Ferrero will take on the up-and-coming Kudryavtsev, a Challenger player looking to make the step up to play with the big boys.

    Ferrero has been struggling lately. He had a solid start to the season, but in recent months has barely played a match due to injury. The Spaniard surely looks to be on the downside of his career and he hasn't played since Wimbledon. He's played in Beijing twice, reaching the semis in 2005, when he lost to Rafael Nadal. No one quite knows what form Ferrero will bring into this event, having not played in a few months and retiring in his last two losses.

    For the Juan Carlos fans out there, this is all a bit nerve-wracking, but for Kudryavtsev, this is good news. The young Russian played in the Chennai event back in January of this year and lost a tough three-setter to Carlos Moya in the second round. He pulled off a nice win over Philipp Kohlschreiber back in Toronto in July as well. Other than that, though, he has spent much of his time battling it out on the Challenger tour trying to get his ranking up. He plays a bit of a kamikaze James Blake style game, always looking to power a forehand winner at the most inopportune times.

    If Kudryavtsev can get a bit more consistency on his shots and gets some more experience on the main tour, he could very well be a force in a few years. As for now though, a win over Ferrero would be a great result for him.

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