This relatively unknown American has climbed from well outside the Top 100 at the beginning of the year to No. 67 this week. His biggest claim to fame up to now is probably his decent run at his first RG, where he was just a point away from a straight-sets victory over eventual champion Kuerten in the fourth round.

Has anyone watched him play recently? I haven't, but all of a sudden he's the 5th highest-ranked US player.

Hi Nick,
Russell played Hewitt in the 1st round of the AO after going through qualifying, I think. He had enjoyed a great run before that, winning two Challengers in a row and had been undefeated for the last 16 matches or something. Anyway, he went 2 sets to love up against Hewitt and looked the better player. Really strong off both sides, a pretty big game and just didn't look like missing his shots. I went to bed after the second set, convinced that Hewitt was gone, but woke up the next day to hear that he'd fought back and won in 5....
He looked very good in the early stages of that match though, and commentators couldn't say enough good things about the guy. :)