Martin Klizan edges past Mikhail Youzhny into the title match – St. Petersburg Open 2012
Third seeded player from Slovakia, Martin Klizan, played superbly to upset the top seed, Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, in the semi-finals of the St. Petersburg Open in Russia.
Klizan lost the first set by the closest of margins, captured the second one easily and then won a hard fought decider. It was the longest match of the tournament, which lasted for three hours and 48 minutes and the final score
was 6-7(11), 6-4, 7-6(3) in Klizan’s favour.
The Slovakian hit a blow to Youzhny in the very first game and won his following serve to attain a 2-0 lead. Though, the Russian star broke back in the sixth to equalise the score at 3-3. Klizan struck again in the seventh and
consolidated on it to move ahead 5-3 but he failed to serve out the set, losing two in a row to take the score to 5-5. The subsequent two games were held, levelling the proceedings at 6-6 and forcing a tie-breaker. There was an intense battle later on, as
both players went at till 11-11 but then Youzhny grabbed two points in a row to seal it 7-6(11).
There were a lot of exchanges of blows in the second set, as seven times the server failed to hold out of 10. Youzhny and Klizan traded six breaks of serve in the first eight games to even out the score at 4-4. Luckily for him,
the Slovakian managed to win his serve in the ninth and struck one again in the 10th to capture it 6-4.
Start of the decider was not any different from what kept happening in the second set, as both players broke each other in the first two games to square off the score at 1-1. Klizan grabbed a breakthrough in the sixth and capitalised
on it to go up 5-2 but Youzhny clinched three back to back to take the score to 5-5. This was again taken to a tie-breaker, where Klizan bagged an early mini-break this time to win 7-6(3).
The Slovakian will lock horns with the fourth seed, Fabio Fognini, in the title match.
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