Stakhovsky beat Safin for a place in St Petersburg final
Saint Petersburg: Ukraine's Sergiy Stakhovsky reached the final of the USD 750,000 St Petersburg Open ATP tournament, beating Russian tennis icon Marat Safin Ukraine's in today's semi-final here.
Stakhovsky won 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in one hour 48 minutes to
level his head-to-head record with the local crowd's
longstanding favourite Safin at 1-1.
Stakhovsky looked slightly more confident from the start,
breaking early for a 3-1 lead but Safin, currently 77th in the
ATP rankings, broke back immediately to level at three games
all.
But Ukraine's 23-year-old, who is currently 93rd in the
world, broke again in the 10th game to take the opening set in
35 minutes.
Safin, playing his last event on home ground after
announcing his retirement at the end of the season, broke
immediately in the second for a 2-0 lead and levelled the tie
after one hour 13 minutes on court.
No big serves were produced in the deciding set until the
10th game, when Safin suddenly lost his nerve and produced a
set of unforced errors, allowing Stakhovsky to win the contest
and bag a place in the final.
In the tomorrow's final Stakhovsky will face either
eighth seed Horacio Zeballos of Argentina or Russia's Igor
Kunitsyn, who were facing off in the other semi-final.
Bureau Report