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Stars of BiH(1): Mirza Basic a step away from ATP company
Behind the 20-year old Sarajevan is a season in which he practically said goodbye to the futures and showed his worth on the Challenger tour, where he performed great and is one of the leaders of his generation.
Jump of 232 places on the ATP list does not impress at first glance, however when the jump is from 520 to 282, than this fact appears to be much more interesting. For B&H public this information is particularly important as this significant jump in the ranking has occurred all through-out one calendar year of play by Mirza Basic, one of the world's best young players.
Tursunov is not a coincidence
After a great junior career (best ranking – 6th on IFT Ranking), this young Sarajevan has in the last two years, namely from February 8th of 2010, when he was ranked 1015, until December 12th this year, when he ranked 288 in the world, done a great job.
Season which just ended Basic opened with January appearances on two very strong futures (15.000, indoor) in United Kingdom, where he reached semi-finals both times, which put inside the top 500 (January 31st he was ranked 464 in the world). February than saw him play in the final of the equally strong tournament in Croatia, after which he had the tournament of his career – semifinal of the Sarajevo Challenger, which he reached after wins over Slovenian Grega Zemlja, 141 ATP ranking, and Dmitry Tursunov (RUS), 7:6(11) 7:6(1). After these great performances Basic jumped into the top 400 and stayed there throughout the spring and the entire summer (best result was a final in Prijedor, B&H). Before that (end April) he played the final of the qualifications at the Belgrade ATP tournament (lost to Franko Skugor, CRO, 4:6 2:6)
Best of Europe
In September he finally catches good form on clay and wins the futures in Serbia and plays the quarterfinal of the Banjaluka (B&H) challenger (lost to Spaniard Pere Riba, 70th on the ATP list, 1:6 3:6). He completes the year by excellent performances on the American tour, where he plays a series of indoor Challengers. In Knoxville (USA) Basic reaches semifinals from the qualifications, beating Bobby Reynolds, 118th world player by the score of 6:3 6:3. That was a great ending to the season because that performance put him into the top 300, which is a certain sign that his efforts were not in vain and that his career is heading in a right direction.
This is confirmed by the following – only two Europeans younger than him have a better ranking – those are Spaniard Javier Marti (1992), ranked 184, and Laurynas Grigelis (1991), ranked 198.