Andrey Golubev

Golubev began the year by reaching his first Australian Open 2nd round by upsetting Ivan Ljubičić 3–6, 6–3, 2–6, 3–6 but losing to Mardy Fish in the following round 6–2, 1–6, 6–3, 6–3. He then rech the final of the 2010 Intersport Heilbronn Open challenger losing to Michael Berrer 3–6, 6–7. he then suffered first round losts in the 2010 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament and 2010 PBZ Zagreb Indoors. He then came back to the challengers of the 2010 GEMAX Open, where he retired in the quarterfinals against Ilija Bozoljac, 4–6, 3–5 ret. Representing Kazakhstan against South Korea, he was able to win both of his matches in straight sets. At the challengers of the 2010 BMW Tennis Championship, he fell in the second round to Michael Berrer.

Golubev lost to Rafael Nadal in the first round of the US Open in straight sets, but he led early in each of the sets 3–1 in the first, 3–0 in the second, and 3–1 in the third, and was able to hold to force the second set into a tiebreak. The final score was 4–6, 6–7, 5–7.

He was able to qualify in the 2010 BNP Paribas Open, but lost to Daniel Gimeno-Traver 6–3, 6–4 in the first round. At the 2010 Tennis Napoli Cup challengers, he fell to Rui Machado, 6–3 6–3 in the semifinals. He then reached the second round of the 2010 Grand Prix Hassan II and as a qualifier in the 2010 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, falling to Richard Gasquet and David Ferrer, respectively. Andrey fell in the qualifier of the 2010 Internazionali BNL d'Italia. In a Davis Cup tie against China, he again won both his matches to give Kazakhstan a play-off spot.

He then suffered first-round loses in the 2010 French Open, 2010 Aegon Championships, Aegon International, and 2010 Wimbledon Championships. However, he reach the semifinals of the challenger 2010 UniCredit Czech Open, losing to Radek Štěpánek, 6–3, 6–2. At the 2010 Swedish Open, he lost in the second round to Tommy Robredo, 3–6, 6–3, 6–2. Golubev played world no.6 and defending champion Nikolay Davydenko in the 2010 International German Open to earn a spot in the quarterfinals, and then defeated Denis Istomin, 6–4, 6–1 to earn a semifinal berth. He then defeated Jürgen Melzer in the final, 6–3, 7–5, earning his first ATP World Tour title and becoming the first man from Kazakhstan to win an ATP World Tour title. Golubev followed this up by reaching the final of the 2010 Malaysian Open, losing to US Open semifinalist Mikhail Youzhny, having won the first set.

Golubev entered qualifying for the US Open for the first time in 2008, losing in the final round to Switzerland's Stéphane Bohli. However, when Juan Carlos Ferrero pulled out of the tournament, Golubev was chosen as the lucky loser to replace him, and made his Grand Slam debut against an American wildcard, Brendan Evans. Golubev defeated Evans in three sets, but then lost to seventh seed David Nalbandian in the second round.

He reached the final of the 2008 St. Petersburg Open. His first win came against Olivier Rochus, where he prevailed 6–1, 6–4. He then surprised home hero Marat Safin in the second round, beating the Russian 6–4, 6–2 to progress to the quarterfinals. His next opponent was Mischa Zverev, whom he beat 6–7, 6–4, 7–6. He then went on to beat Victor Hănescu 6–3, 6–0 in the semifinals, but lost to Andy Murray 1–6, 1–6 in the final.

For the first years of his career, up to and including 2008 Wimbledon, Golubev competed as an athlete from Russia. However, before the 2008 Canada Masters, he changed his affiliation, appearing on the draw as an athlete from Kazakhstan, and his ATP profile now reflects this.

Golubev's first tournament of 2007 was a first for him, as he attempted to qualify for his first ATP International Series event, the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha. He lost his first match in straight sets, but continued his attempts to qualify for large events when he entered qualifying for the Australian Open. In Melbourne, he won his first qualifying match against Ernests Gulbis, but lost the second and failed to advance. Still, the ranking points that this attempt garnered moved Golubev into the top 300 for the first time in his career.

Golubev played fairly few doubles matches in 2007, but did record his first career challenger victory at Mantua with Francesco Piccari, and again teamed with Piccari to make the semi-finals in Cordenons. He reached a new career high doubles ranking of #350 after these results, and finished the year at #389.

He was able to gain direct acceptance to a challenger event in Rome in May, his first appearance in a main draw since September 2006, making the quarterfinals. His first challenger semifinal appearance came in Sassuolo a month later, as he won six straight matches to move into the top 250 for the first time. This made it easier to earn direct acceptance to challengers, and also helped him enter Wimbledon qualifying. In his first major event on grass, Golubev defeated #1 seed Olivier Patience, but fell short in the final round, losing his first five-set match to Wang Yeu-Tzuoo, and failing to qualify.

Golubev continued to enter futures events in 2005, with his best performances a semifinal and a quarterfinal, until mid-May, when he won events on back-to-back weeks, the first in Grottaglie, the other in Teramo. The Grottaglie event was the first time that Golubev had ever been seeded in the main draw of a futures event, and as the #7 seed he survived losing the first set in the semifinals before beating #1 seed Malek Jaziri of Tunisia in the finals. Because of this win, he earned a special exemption for the Teramo event, where he continued his good form by beating #5 seed Alessandro Accardo in the final, having already taken out the tournament's #1 seed in the semis.

The schedule of rankings changes meant that both these events were added to the points count on the week of June 6, 2005, lifting Golubev up into the top 500 for the first time in his career.

In August, he won three straight qualifying matches to make the field for a challenger in Pamplona, where he would again make the second round. However, unable to consistently achieve strong results in the challengers, Golubev resumed playing futures events in September, making the finals in a November event in Sint-Genesius-Rode, Belgium. The ranking points from this event would be enough to move Golubev into the top 400 for the first time on November 21, 2005, and he finished the year ranked 393rd. Later in June, he earned a second wild card in Reggio Emilia, but lost his first round match.

Despite finishing the 2005 season with a career-high ranking, Golubev struggled to start the 2006 season, not making it beyond the quarterfinals of a futures event until mid-May and dropping back below the 400th ranking place in mid-March. He returned to the top 400 after making the finals in Vicenza, rising to a new career-high ranking, but in this tournament he benefited from drawing a wild card in his first match, and getting both a withdrawal and a retirement from other opponents.

This performance earned him enough ranking points to qualify for a futures event in Helsingør, Denmark, where he had a strong run to the semifinals. He would get to at least the quarterfinals of three other events, all in Italy, including making his first final in L'Aquila, losing to Mathieu Montcourt. By the end of 2004, he was ranked as the 561st player in the world, with 25 ATP Entry Ranking points.

Golubev's first senior ITF experience came primarily on the satellite tour in 2003. The first ranking point(s) earned by Golubev were from a four-week satellite tour in Serbia, and he gained another from a satellite event in Italy. In 2004, he turned his focus to attempting to qualify for futures and challenger events. His first appearance in the main draw of one of these events was from a wild card in the Arpa Ceramic Cup in Reggio Emilia, Italy, where he lost to world #219 Salvador Navarro, but did manage to win a set.

Andrey Golubev (Russian: Андре́й Алекса́ндрович Го́лубев ; born July 22, 1987) is a Kazakh professional tennis player of Russian origin. His career-high singles ranking is World No. 33, achieved in October 2010. He has participated in all Grand Slam tournaments, the first being the 2008 US Open, as well in the main draw of ATP Masters Series and ATP International Series events. He has won three Challenger tournaments and reached the final of the 2008 St Petersburg Open. He won the 2010 International German Open, an ATP World Tour 500 series event.

Golubev's ranking also improved in doubles, though not by as wide a margin. After making two tournament finals in June, he moved into the top 500, and nearly ended up in the top 400 before inactivity at the end of the season cost him points and dropped him back below #500. He finished the year ranked 510th in doubles.