St. Petersburg Open; Mikhail Kukushkin grabs his maiden title in Russia
World number 88 Mikhail Kukushkin captured his maiden ATP World Tour crown in his nineteenth main draw tour level competition on Sunday as he did well to brush aside the top seed and local favourite Mikhail Youzhny in two sets at the 2010 St. Petersburg
Open Men’s Singles Competition. The final score line was 6-3, 7-6(2).
The professional tennis player from Kazakhstan registered his name as the fifth first-time champion on the ATP World Tour this year, and the second in as many weeks after Viktor Troicki’s win in Moscow few days ago. He is the second contender from Kazakhstan
to grab an ATP World Tour trophy, following Andrey Golubev’s win in Hamburg back in July.
"For me it is just incredible, this feeling, because I never think that I can win a tournament right now because I was ranking around 90. When I came here I did not think I can even reach the final eight or, semis here. I was only focusing on every match,”
reflected Kukushkin after his victory on Sunday.
He further added, "When I came here in the final, I know that I play against Misha Youzhny. Of course I believe in myself, but I did not think that I can win this title. I think right now I do not understand what happened today. I am in shock because I did
not think that it is going to happen with me, and I think I need some time to understand what happened."
Youzhny, on the other hand, had been hoping to turn up the heat on his London rivals by capturing his third ATP World Tour crown in 2010. The professional tennis player from Russia, who started the week at number ten in the year-to-date ATP Rankings, is
attempting to qualify for the season ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London on the very first occasion in his career.
The 22-year-old Kukushkin showed some signs of nerves in his first ATP World Tour title battle while racing to a lead of one set with the help of service breaks during the fifth and ninth game on Sunday. He then battled back from a break down on two occasions
in the following set before sealing win in the tie-break after two hours and twenty six minutes.
When asked about his opponent, the 2010 St. Petersburg champion said that Youzhny was playing in his home tournament with the entire support of the crowd which was off course troublesome for him, however, he held his nerves and didn’t panic at any stage
of the competition and in the end won the title.
Kukushkin’s previous best run on the ATP World Tour had been a final four appearance as a qualifier in Moscow back in 2009. This season’s Bangkok quarter-finalist as a result of this win has improved his win loss mark to 17-8 on the year and has also jumped
to a career high ranking of world number fifty eight in the South African Airways 2010 ATP Rankings, released on Monday.
Kukushkin, while commenting on his ranking said that his next goal is to reach the top fifty and to perform consistently on the tour.
The 28-year-old Youzhny, on the other hand, as a result of this loss has dropped down to 7-10 mark in ATP World Tour title battles, 2-3 this year. After runner-up performances in Rotterdam and Dubai back in February, the Muscovite had captured trophies in
Munich and Kuala Lumpur after getting the better of Cilic and Golubev. He had been looking to regain the St. Petersburg Open crown he had captured back in 2004 after thrashing out Beck in straight sets.
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