After Brisbane, Istomin climbed six steps up the ATP rankings. But if his way to the Brisbane quarterfinals was like a gift from the local Santa Claus (his first opponent Florian Mayer (GER) had to withdraw during the match due to injury, and the second Tommy Haas (USA) did not come to court at all), the semifinals in Sydney urged Istomin no only display a maximum of skill and perseverance but inspiration.

Already in the qualifying tournament in Sydney, Istomin filled up the lack of match practice in Brisbane, where he had to get a pass in the qualifiers to the main draw of 28 places. Not only him, but his future semifinal contender Jarkko Nieminen (FIN), who five years ago steadily kept in the top twenty of the most powerful and even reach 13^th place in the ATP rankings, also faced with this necessity as last fall he was ‘dropped out’ of the first fifty and before Sydney was 77^th...

Naturally, the Uzbek player had to meet with ‘superior’ opponents in the main draw. First, Pablo Andujar (ESP) was listed 44^th in the ranking. However, after losing to Istomin (3/6, 6/2, 3/6) he had to step down: losses rarely turn out positive but happen sometimes in tennis. Dennis literally swept off the court (6/2, 6/1) his next opponent lucky-loser Ryan Sweeting (USA) who also proved in the first qualifying round that he deserved the main tournament. And then he made a big surprise by a victory over third seeded 18^th in the ranking Richard Gasquet (FRA) 6/4, 7/6(4).

Such a victory is worth a lot. But it takes a lot of forces, especially psychologically. And hadn’t enough of that for the match with the experienced and inconvenient lefty Nieminen. Especially because Istomin was hardly pleased about the Australian Open draw where the first match he had to play with sixth racket of the world Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) who spectacularly won a tournament in Doha a week before. And after a hard tie-break in the first set that ended with a 14:12 in favor of the 30-y.o. Finn, Dennis lost the second set 3/6... In the final, Niemenen beat Julien Bennett (FRA), won his second title in a single career and came back to the Top 50.

In Melbourne, Istomin confirmed that he a fighter. He hadn’t much chance to beat Tsonga, who said on the eve of the start of the Australian Open that he was in great shape. But the Uzbek player offered a hard time to the French and even won a set. The score 6/4, 3/6, 6/2, 7/5 suggests that it was a difficult match for both players. Moreover, even 6/2 was not an evidence of weakness: if the first two sets lasted 37 minutes, the third took 44 min., and the fourth lasted 56 minutes. Match stats shows that Istomin was almost nothing inferior to the French, and even was 20% more accurate in the first serving.

Denis lost this time. But we could see by the game the leader of the Uzbek tennis can soon defeat the players from the top ten. Meanwhile he remains in Melbourne as a competitor in the doubles. In the first round Istomin with Flavio Cipolla (ITA) meet with James Duckworth and Adam Feeney, both Australia.