Mikhail Kukushkin

Began playing tennis at age six with father Alexander who coached him until age 17…Mother, Tatiana…Has one older sister, Ekaterina...Likes to play on hard courts, best shots are ground strokes…Moved to Kazakhstan in 2008…Has no specific goals in terms of rankings or results but just wants to give his best on the court…Likes movies and reading Russian books…Best friends on the tour are Andrey Golubev and Yuri Schukin…Coached by Anastasia Ulikhina since February 2011...

2011 -- The top player from Kazakhstan finished in Top 100 for 2nd straight season, highlighted by QF in Basel (l. to Nishikori) as a lucky loser...Prior to Basel, only time he won back-to-back matches on ATP World Tour came in May when he defeated Querrey and Lindell in ATP World Team Cup in Düsseldorf...In limited Challenger play, compiled an 11-3 mark with a runner-up at Penza, Russia and title on home soil in Astana (d. Bubka) in back-to-back weeks in July...Reached a career-high No. 56 on Sept. 19 and went 0-2 vs. Top 10 opponents while compiling marks of 6-14
on hard, 3-7 on clay and 1-3 on grass...

2010 -- The No. 2 Kazakhstani player (behind Golubev) finished in Top 60 for first time in his career after jumping from No. 132 previous year…He captured his first ATP World Tour title in St. Petersburg (d. Youzhny) and became second player from Kazakhstan to win an ATP title (Golubev won Hamburg in July)…Finished with a personal-high 17 match wins, including a 14-6 record on hard courts…Posted impressive Challenger match record of 32-14 with titles in Braunschweig (d. Daniel) and Penza (d. Kravchuk) and a runner-up in Istanbul…Earned a career-high $281,378...

2009 -- Qualified in Moscow and advanced to his 1st ATP World Tour SF (l. to Youzhny)…Captured Penza Challenger title (d. Marchenko) in Russia...

2008 -- Qualified and won his 1st ATP World Tour matches in Barcelona with wins over No. 24 Nieminen and Cuevas (l. to Montanes in 3R)…Qualified in back-to-back weeks in Moscow and St. Petersburg, reaching 2R…Qualified and won Barletta Challenger title (d. Pashanski) in Italy...

2007 -- Picked up challenger titles at Saransk (d. Sergeyev) and Samarkand (d. Jorquera)…Qualified for 1st ATP tournament in St. Petersburg (l. to Ledovskikh)...