Ilhan was actually born in Uzbekhistan, so the story of how he came to Turkey is probably pretty interesting. According to Wikipedia, his real name is “Marsel Khamdamov.” He moved to Turkey with his mother (his father is deceased) in 2004, after he’d already been playing the game about 10 years. In 2007, he leaped from No. 1327 to No. 320.
He has blossomed into a viable player the last couple of years, breaking into the top 100 at No. 87 just before the Australian Open this year.
On the ATP Tour web site, Ilhan states his ambition as “to finish inside the Top 100 for 10 consecutive years.” We like the reality he lives in.
He was the first Turkish played to win a Challenger, and the first to reach the second round of a Slam when he beat Christophe Rochus in a five-set thriller at the U.S. Open in 2009.
He defeated Tommy Haas (who had been returning from more than a year off) in the first round of the French Open this year, in four sets. Ilhan had moved through the qualifying to get there; he ended up losing in the second round to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain – 13-11 in the fifth set but earned himself a nifty 25,000 Euros for his week’s work
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