Youzhny emerges victorious at Kuala Lumpur
Russian Mikhail Youzhny emerged victorious at the 2010 Malaysian Open on Sunday. In possibly the most thrilling match of the tournament, Youzhny scored a significant win over Kazakhstan’s Andrey Golubev, who was the tournament’s 8th seed. The
match ended with a final tally of 6-7 (7), 6-2, 7-6 (3). Andrey Golubev may well have been the favourite to win, with multiple triumphs over fifth seed Robin Soderling at the quarter finals, and 11th seed David Ferrer at the semi finals.
With this triumph, Mikhail Youzhny managed to edge himself up to the World Number 8 position, which is also his career’s highest ranking so far. The match signifies the 28 year old Russian’s seventh ATP career title, as well as his second title for the year
2010 (his first trophy this year was the 2010 BMW Open, where he defeated first seed Marin Cilic).
This tournament seemed to whet his appetite for more victories; the fourth seed spoke to reporters, saying, “It’s a good result but all the time when you have some (good) results, you want more. So now of course I don’t want to stop. I want more.”
The match remained intense and charged throughout, especially during the first set, where the Russian player dropped a set to World Number 41 Golubev during a tie breaker, handing over the opening of the game to his opponent. Although he fought Golubev with
defensive lobs and forced the game into a tie breaker, he had to hand it over to Golubev as a consequence of multiple unforced errors. However, in the second set, Youzhny succeeded in putting Golubev down with a score of 6-2. The players moved into the decider,
with Golubev climbing his way over the tie breaker and stretching it by trying to break his opponent with net plays; however, this ploy was not as effective as it had been in the first set, due to Youzhny’s growing patience and focus.
Youzhny stated, “Even though I was behind a set, I kept telling myself that the match will only end after the last point won, so I just kept fighting for every point. I know he (Golubev) beat everybody else in the tournament in two sets but I just concentrate
on winning points in the match.”
The victories at the BMW Open and the Malaysian Open are significant for Youzhny, who is now in a good position to qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals in London. With his new ranking, and the Beijing Open and Shanghai Masters still on the cards, the Russian
World Number 8 stands a good chance of participating at London.
The match, lasting over two and a half hours, is Mikhail’s third consecutive match in which he rallied from a set down. Mikhail Youzhny commented on his performance, saying, “It was a really tough match, a very close match. I should have won the first set.
When you lead 6-3 in the tie-break indoors usually you should take the set.' He also commented on 23 year old Golubev’s game, saying, “He is a very good player and I think he is going to improve more and more, year by year. He is still young and he has really
good results.”
Golubev himself remains upbeat and optimistic about his performance, saying, “The tournament was a good one for me as I was in a very good shape, having defeated top 10 players. I know I can play against better players now and I hope to improve my game in
the future and grab some good results towards the end of the season.”
Tags: