Mikhail Youzhny crushes Grega Zemlja to reach the quarters – PBZ Zagreb Indoors 2012
Russian booming star, Mikhail Youzhny, slew the Slovenian competitor, Grega Zemlja, with a breadstick at the PBZ Zagreb Indoors 2012, an ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 series event taking place in Zagreb, Croatia. He barely sweated in the opening set to register a 6-1, 6-3 victory over the 25-year-old Slovene to advance into the final eight on Thursday.
Third seeded Russian outsmarted his rival, ranked 121st in the South African Airways ATP World Rankings, in an hour and 15 minutes-long marathon. He not only took lead in the FedEx ATP head2head series but also moved a step closer to bag his eighth ATP career title.
Youzhny quickly made in-roads as he drew the first blood in the second game and subsequently went 3-0 up. After Zemlja came on the score sheet for the first time in the fourth game, the Russian blasted powerful forehands again and wiped out the last three games. He was never threatened while keeping his entire serves and convincingly availed two out of three break opportunities to register an exceptional 6-1 win.
World number 39, Youzhny, stayed focused in the following set and earned the desiderated break in the third game at 2-1. He then swiped in remaining serves and cashed in another break chance in the last game to pocket the set with a 6-3 win.
Next up for the Russian is the eighth seeded local star, Ivo Karlovic, who dumped Israel’s Dudi Sela in straight sets to occupy this spot.
On another court, sixth seed Marcos Baghdatis outshined the polish contender, Lukasz Kubot, in straight sets to join the Russian in the last eight.
"I can say in the first round I started very well; Rosol played very well in the middle of the first set," said the Cypriot after securing a quarter-final spot. "So I cannot say if I played better or not, but today I kept the momentum and I kept the way I started against Rosol and that made the win a bit easier. I’m feeling good now. I’m happy. I’m playing good and I think my ranking will go up slowly."
The 26-year-old blocked the only breakpoint he encountered to hold his entire serves. He then cashed in half of the six break opportunities to manipulate a 6-4, 6-2 success in 76 minutes.
The Cypriot’s seed will square off against the fourth seed and the defending champion, Ivan Dodig, who has the support of the crowd.
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