Misha Youzhny

[Annie]

HELLAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMFG IT'S BEEN AGES GIRL!!!!! Great to have you back ;D

[jenhatter06]

Misha's "forehand to forehead" has been everywhere -- yeeeeesh ... a glimpse on post-match

The aftermath

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. -- Only three reporters were waiting when Mikhail Youzhny walked into a small interview room after his late match with Nicolas Almagro on Monday night, blood still oozing from an inch-and-a-half-long gash on his hairline.

I'd had my head down in the press work room, writing, and didn't personally witness the third-set head-bashing incident that has since become an instant Internet video classic. ATP spokesman Pete Holtermann alerted me to it immediately after it happened and I followed the rest of the action as the Russian shook off his self-inflicted wound and advanced to the round of 16.

As my colleagues from England and the Netherlands questioned Youzhny about the match, I watched the blood trickling lower and lower on his forehead and considered calling the first-ever mid-interview medical time out.

Finally, I blurted out, "Are you all right?'' One of the other reporters fished around in his bag and offered Youzhny a tissue, which he pressed against the egg swelling through his buzzcut.

Youzhny is an intense guy, but he told us he'd never done anything quite so violently zany on the court before. "Were you embarrassed to have to call the trainer at such a critical time in the match?'' I asked. "I didn't want to,'' he said, equal parts stoic and sheepish. "But then I saw the blood dripping on the court.''

Almagro lost his temper a couple of times too, as Youzhny noted: "We were just two crazy boys out there.'' With that kind of pain threshhold, don't be surprised if the Russian hockey team enlists him as a goon.

-- Bonnie D. Ford
sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/news/story?id=3325571