Michael Craig Russell is an American tennis player.

Russell is best known for, on two occasions, holding surprise two-set leads in Grand Slam tournaments against former Grand Slam champions before eventually being defeated both times. In the 4th round of the 2001 French Open

2001 French Open

The 2001 French Open was the second Grand Slam event of 2001 and the 100th edition of the French Open. It took place at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, from late May through early June, 2001.-Men's Singles:...

 (his best run at a Grand Slam tournament) against defending and eventual champion Gustavo Kuerten

Gustavo Kuerten

Gustavo Kuerten is a retired former World No. 1 tennis player from Brazil. He won the French Open three times between 1997 and 2001, and was the Tennis Masters Cup champion in 2000...

, Russell led two sets to love and 5–3 in the third set, also missing a match point. In the 2007 Australian Open

2007 Australian Open

The 2007 Australian Open was a Grand Slam tennis tournament held in Melbourne, Australia from 15 January until 28 January 2007.The total prize pool was set at exactly A$20 million, with the winners of both the men's and women's singles competition each receiving A$1,281,000. Over 500 players...

, he held a two sets to love lead over former U.S. Open and Wimbledon champion Lleyton Hewitt

Lleyton Hewitt

Lleyton Glynn Hewitt born 24 February 1981) is an Australian professional tennis player and former world no. 1.In 2000, Hewitt had won ATP titles on all three major surfaces and reached one final on carpet. By 2001, he became the youngest male ever to be ranked no. 1 at the age of 20...

 before succumbing in five sets.

In the 2007 Indian Wells Masters event, he made it to the final 16 players in a 96-player field, after upsetting 11th seed – and 12th-ranked – Tomáš Berdych in round 2. He reached his career highest ranking of 60 in August 2007 after reaching 2nd round of Montreal TMS. Both his mother and father are tennis coaches.

Playing style

Russell is a defensive counter-puncher, known for his footspeed and consistency. John McEnroe

John McEnroe

John Patrick McEnroe, Jr. is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player from the United States. During his career, he won seven Grand Slam singles titles , nine Grand Slam men's doubles titles, and one Grand Slam mixed doubles title...

 described him as a particularly dogged competitor, saying that "no one's going to try harder on a tennis court than Michael Russell".

Tour tennis titles (19)

Tennis Masters Series (0)

ATP Tour (0)

Challengers (11)

Futures (8)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	May 17, 1999	Vero Beach	Clay	Irakli Labadze Irakli Labadze Irakli Labadze |Georgia]]) is a professional tennis player. His career high singles ranking was "World No. 42" which he attained in July, 2004.Labadze turned pro in 1998, and has recently passed the $1 205 296 career prize money mark...	7–6, 6–3
2.	May 31, 1999	Weston Weston, Florida Weston is a suburb of South Florida located in Broward County, Florida, USA. Established as a city in 1996, much of the community was developed by Arvida/JMB Realty and is located near the western developmental boundary of Broward County. It is the most western city in Broward County, and its...	Clay	Hugo Armando Hugo Armando Hugo Armando is an American former professional tennis player.-ATP and Grand Slam doubles titles :-External links:...	6–3, 6–2
3.	January 31, 2000	Amarillo	Hard(i)	Stefano Pescosolido Stefano Pescosolido Stefano Pescosolido is a former tennis player from Italy, who turned professional in 1989.Pescosolido was born in Sora. He represented his native country at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was defeated in the first round by Brazil's Fernando Meligeni...	7–5, 6–2
4.	May 31, 1999	Mobile Mobile, Arizona Mobile is a community in Goodyear, Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. It is situated about 35 miles southwest of Phoenix, Arizona, and has a population of less than 100. Mobile is also home to a number of solid-waste landfills. Lufthansa operates a private airport to the north of Mobile, used...	Hard	Martin Verkerk Martin Verkerk Martin Willem Verkerk is a retired Dutch tennis player. As a relatively unknown player, he had a brilliant run at the French Open in 2003, reaching the final before losing to Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero...	4–6, 6–1, 6–4
5.	June 21, 2004	Montreal Montreal Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...	Hard	Domenic Marafiote	6–3, 6–3
6.	June 28, 2004	Buffalo Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...	Clay	Jorge Aguilar Jorge Aguilar Jorge Roberto Aguilar Mondaca is a Chilean professional tennis player. In 2001 won the U16 world championship with best friend Guillermo Hormazábal and Carlos Rios....	6–3, 6–0
7.	July 5, 2004	Pittsburgh	Clay	Kean Feeder	6–1, 6–0
8.	July 12, 2004	Granby Granby, Quebec Granby is a city in southwestern Quebec, located east of Montreal. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census was 47,637. Granby is the seat of La Haute-Yamaska Regional County Municipality. It is the fifth most populated city in Montérégie after Longueuil, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Brossard and...	Hard	Davide Sanguinetti Davide Sanguinetti Davide Sanguinetti is an Italian former professional male tennis player.Born in Viareggio in Tuscany, he attended the Harry Hopman academy in Florida and then UCLA...	6–3, 6–2
9	October 17, 2005	Arlington Arlington, Texas Arlington is a city in Tarrant County, Texas within the Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area. According to the 2010 census results, the city had a population of 365,438, making it the third largest municipality in the Metroplex...	Hard	Benedikt Dorsch	6–1, 6–3
10.	November 28, 2005	Orlando, Florida Orlando, Florida Orlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...	Hard	Todd Widom Todd Widom Todd Widom is an American professional tennis player.-Biography:Todd is the son of Eloise of Coral Springs, has one brother Gary, and is married to Beth Eisenberg also of Coral Springs. Right now Todd is coaching multiple Junior Tennis players while simultaneously going to school and working to...	6–4, 6–2
11	February 20, 2006	Brownsville, Texas Brownsville, Texas Brownsville is a city in the southernmost tip of the state of Texas, in the United States. It is located on the northern bank of the Rio Grande, directly north and across the border from Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Brownsville is the 16th largest city in the state of Texas with a population of...	Hard	Brendan Evans Brendan Evans Brendan Evans is an American professional tennis player. On the junior circuit, Evans reached a career-high combined ranking of No. 2 in 2004, when he won the Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open doubles titles alongside Scott Oudesma. Evans competes today on the ATP Challenger Tour and the ATP...	6–2, 6–1
12.	August 14, 2006	Bronx	Hard	Paul Capdeville Paul Capdeville Paul Gerard Capdeville Castro is a Chilean tennis player.Capdeville was born in Santiago, Chile. On May 18, 2009, he achieved a career-high singles ranking of 76....	6–0, 6–2
13.	November 27, 2006	Maui Maui The island of Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is part of the state of Hawaii and is the largest of Maui County's four islands, bigger than Lānai, Kahoolawe, and Molokai. In 2010, Maui had a population of 144,444,...	Hard	Sam Warburg Sam Warburg Sam Warburg is a retired American male tennis player.- College career :Warburg was a 4-time All -American for Stanford University, and won the NCAA Doubles Championship in 2004. He also won the 2004 & 2005 PAC-10 Singles titles...	6–1, 6–0
14.	January 1, 2007	Nouméa Nouméa Nouméa is the capital city of the French territory of New Caledonia. It is situated on a peninsula in the south of New Caledonia's main island, Grande Terre, and is home to the majority of the island's European, Polynesian , Indonesian, and Vietnamese populations, as well as many Melanesians,...	Hard	David Guez David Guez David Guez is a French tennis player. He has a career high-ranking of 116 .-Career:Guez has played six major singles tournaments at professional level. At the 2009 Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon he won with Rajeev Ram and reached to the second round, where he lost with Gilles Simon...	6–0, 6–1
15.	January 22, 2007	Waikoloa	Hard	Jamie Baker Jamie Baker (tennis) Jamie Baker is a British professional male tennis player. He trains at Nottingham Tennis Centre and in Loughborough.-Junior:...	6–1, 7–5
16.	February 12, 2007	Joplin Joplin, Missouri Joplin is a city in southern Jasper County and northern Newton County in the southwestern corner of the US state of Missouri. Joplin is the largest city in Jasper County, though it is not the county seat. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 50,150...	Hard(i)	Frédéric Niemeyer Frederic Niemeyer Frédéric Niemeyer is a retired, veteran minor tour and Canadian Davis Cup tennis player who now is a Tennis Canada coach. Born in Campbellton, New Brunswick, Niemeyer hails from Deauville, Sherbrooke, Quebec...	6–4, 6–1
17.	May 3, 2009	Carson Carson, California Carson is a city in Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2010 census, Carson had a total population of 91,714. Located south of downtown Los Angeles and approximately 14 miles away from the Los Angeles International Airport, it is known as a suburb of the city....	Clay	Michael Yani Michael Yani Michael Yani is a Singaporean-American tennis player. He turned professional in 2003.Yani is 6 ft 1 in and 75 kg . He resides in Durham, North Carolina. His high singles ranking to date is World No. 143, which he reached March 1, 2010.Yani qualified for the 2009 Wimbledon Championships and 2009...	6–1, 6–1
18.	November 21, 2009	Champaign	Hard(i)	Taylor Dent Taylor Dent Taylor Phillip Dent is a retired professional tennis player from the United States.-Early career and back injury:He won 4 ATP singles titles during his career: Newport , Bangkok , Memphis , and Moscow , and reached the finals of three other events on tour...	7–5, 6–4
19.	January 31, 2010	Honolulu	Hard(i)	Grega Žemlja Grega Žemlja Grega Žemlja is a tennis player from Slovenia.Žemlja reached his highest world ranking #111 in singles and #252 in doubles. He lives in Kranj, Slovenia...	6–0, 6–3

External links

• Russell Recent Match Results
• Russell World Ranking History
• His official website