He comes from the country that Sacha Baron Cohen took the mickey out of with the feature film Borat, but I am not joking around when I say that Kazakhstan's No.1 Mikhail Kukushkin is one seriously good tennis player.
On face value, Kukushkin seems like he might go through his career like many others have before him - flitter perennially between ranks 30 and 100 racking up a few wins, before retiring with relative anonymity.
He had a win-loss record on the ATP Tour in 2011 of 10-24. Looks pretty lousy, right? Well it does.
Especially after a breakout year in 2010 which saw him claim his only Tour title to date in St Petersburg, Russia, and finish the year with a 17-8 record.
But this 24-year-old Kukushkin shows more mettle than your average Tour player, and has shown that he has a dogged mentality to upset the apple cart.
His resolve first came to my attention during the opening round of last year's Davis Cup.
The Czech Republic were hosting the Kazakhs in what was the latter's debut in the prestigious world group.
The home side - spearheaded by top-10 player Tomas Berdych, who had reached the Wimbledon final some eight months earlier - were expected to handle the tie with relative ease.
That notion had not changed when the Czechs led 2-1 heading into the final day.
But then two extraordinary things happened: firstly Berdych was upset by Kukushkin's team-mate Andrey Golubev - a massive result to keep the tie alive.
Secondly - not worried about the pressure of carrying his nation's hopes on his brave shoulders - Kukushkin stepped up to win the fifth rubber in four sets over Jan Hajek to send Kazakhstan into the quarter-finals.
It's the kind of performance that surprised at the time, but doesn't anymore.
Recently at the Australian Open, Kukushkin dismissed Viktor Troicki and Gael Monfils in back-to-back five-set matches to reach the fourth round. Such were his depleted energy levels, he could not finish his round-of-16 battle with Andy Murray.
But what was particularly impressive was the way Kukushkin went about his business against top-25 opponents - his forehand, undoubtedly his strength, was brutal. And his hitting was clean and deep, and not giving much chance for guys with more class to work their way past him on the Grand Slam stage.
And that brings me full circle to this year's Davis Cup first round, and Kazakhstan's away clash to Spain at the weekend.
Before I begin the latest narrative about the Astana resident, I should inform you: Spain won the tie 5-0. There is no fairytale finish to this one, but Kukushkin's performance in defeat was somewhat heroic.
Kukushkin led out his nation - a 1000-1 shot with a particular bookmaker to win the Davis Cup - against the defending champions. In Spain, no-one gave them a fighter's chance of scraping just a rubber.
The world number 61 was on his non-preferred surface against a man who climbed the Mt Everest of clay-court tennis by winning the French Open back in 2003, Juan Carlos Ferrero - a former world number one, and current no.48.
Their opening-rubber clash began accordingly, with Ferrero leading by a set and a break, before the tide turned.
The man that is coached by his wife Anastasia Ulikhina, Kukushkin won the second set 6-4 before storming to a 4-0 lead in the third. I