Mikhail Youzhny overcomes Sergiy Stakhovsky in the first round – St. Petersburg Open 2011
An excellent start to the St. Petersburg Open campaign by the world number 33, Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, as he outplayed the 64th ranked Ukrainian, Sergiy Stakhovsky, in the first round clash on Monday.
The fifth seeded Russian took one hour and thirty seven minutes of play to overcome his unseeded opponent in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6(7), to make it to the second round of the ATP (Association of Tennis professionals) World Tour
250 tournament.
The contest was played on the indoor hard courts of the Petersburg Sports and Concert Complex in Saint Petersburg, Russia, with the home favourite putting up a dominant performance to drive Stakhovsky out of the competition with
ease. The Ukrainian offered limited resistance in the opening set and Youzhny got one up early in the game in no time. A more competitive second set was witnessed, with Stakhovsky fighting desperately to remain alive in the competition. Youzhny proved to be
the better man in the second set tie breaker and registered a convincing victory to take off his voyage in Saint Petersburg.
The last meeting between these two men took place in Qatar, Doha, in 2010, with Stakhovsky beating the Russian in straight sets, 7-6(11), 6-2. Youzhny avenged his defeat this time to lead 2-1 in the all-time head-to-head combats
and improved his season record to 25-21.
The Russian secured 26 out of 41 first serve points in the matchup, while his opponent closely followed him with 21 out of 31 points to finish on the losing side. Stakhovsky converted two of his break points but suffered three
cracking ones from Youzhny.
Fifth seed Youzhny had an excellent start in the opener, breaking his opponent in his very first serve game to race away to 3-0 lead in the set. Stakhovsky failed to recover from the early damage done by his opponent and eventually
submitted the first set to Youzhny at 3-6.
Youzhny broke his opponent again in the opening game of the second set and the Ukrainian registered his first serve break of the day in the fourth game to bring him down on even terms. A further exchange of break points took the
set into a tie breaker round and the Ukrainian fought valiantly before losing the decider at 6-7(7).
Youzhny will either face Pere Riba of Spain or Julien Benneteau of France in the second round of the tournament to fight for a place in the quarters.
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