Tennis Malaysian Open and Thailand Open; Youzhny reaches final, Nadal upset by Garcia-Lopez
World number nine Mikhail Youzhny bounced back for the second consecutive day, as he won twelve of the final fourteen games to knock down his Russian tennis foe, Igor Andreev in a three-setter clash to reach the final of the 2010 Malaysian Open Men’s event
on Saturday. The final match score was 3-6, 6-0, 6-2.
Just a day earlier at the ATP World Tour 250 indoor hard surface event, Mikhail had recovered from a set and a double break down to get the better of Marcos Baghdatis in Kuala Lumpur.
The 28-year-old Mikhail is through to his fourth ATP World Tour title battle in 2010 at an important stage in the year. With six weeks of the regular ATP World Tour year yet to go, there are six places still to be grabbed at the season ending Barclays ATP
World Tour Finals in London.
Youzhny, who was also a semi-finalist at the United States Open back in September, is currently ranked number ten by the Association of Tennis Professionals and is attempting to qualify on the very first occasion.
The fourth seed Mikhail has a record of 1-2 in ATP World Tour finals this year and a mark of 6-9 overall. The Muscovite captured his sixth ATP World Tour crown in Munich after getting the better of Cilic back in May and ended as finalist in two finals earlier
in February, falling to the world number five Robin Soderling in Rotterdam and Novak Djokovic in Dubai.
In the title battle, Youzhny will take on either David Ferrer or Andrey Golubev who earlier upset the fifth ranked Soderling on Friday.
In other action, the world number one Rafael Nadal crashed out of the PTT Thailand Open Men’s competition at the hands of Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in an all Spanish semi-final battle on Saturday. The final match score was 2-6, 7-6 (3), 6-3.
World number fifty three, Garcia-Lopez with the help of his impressive string of winners and flat, wide serves stunned Rafa, who was fresh from his United States Open win to complete his career Grand Slam.
Garcia-Lopez will take on world number sixty Jarkko Nieminen in tomorrow’s final after the Finn defeated Benjamin Becker from Germany in two sets. The final match score was 6-3, 6-2.
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