Saturday Morning Man: Mikhail Youzhny!

With hunky Marat Safin set to retire at the end of the season, the crown of hottest Russian tennis star will be passed along to Mikhail Youzhny who will play in the semifinals of the men’s tournament in Valencia, Spain, later today.

The 27-year-old was ranked as high as number eight in the world last year and made it to the semifinals of the US Open in 2006 before losing to Andy Roddick.

He had been struggling most of this season with early exits in all the big tournaments and falling all the way down to his current rank of 23rd. But he’s having a resurgence making it to the final of the Japan Open last month then the next week winning the Kremlin Cup in Moscow. Youzhny has won 13 of his last 15 matches!