Victor Fraile/Getty Images
St. Petersburg Open—Russia
Ukrainian qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky captured his second career title on Sunday, defeating first time ATP World Tour finalist Horaico Zeballos, 2-6, 7-6 (8), 7-6 (7).
The entertaining two hour and 19 minute contest featured two highly contested tiebreaks, that went down to the wire.
After being broken on three occasions in the first set, Stakhovsky rebounded confidently in the second set, maintaining his resolve while saving six break point chances.
Squandering an opportunity to close out his first career title, Zeballos became slightly dejected after losing the second set.
With the match tied at a set apiece, Zeballos drew first blood in the final set, breaking Stakhovsky at 2-1. Stakhovsky, not to be outdone, broke back and served for the match at 5-4.
Zeballos denied Stakhovsky the chance to take home the title, leveling the set at a 5-5.
The crowd couldn't have asked for a better ending to the match, with a final tiebreak on the horizon. Both men were eager to capture the lucrative Tour title, and highlighted the tiebreak with precision groundstrokes and accurate first serves.
Zeballos, who held a match point at 7-6, couldn't capitalize on either of Stakhovsky's serves. Leading 9-8, Stakhovsky gained his third straight point over his Argentinian opponent to seal his victory.
Stakhovsky—who captured his maiden Tour title in Zagreb, Croatia in 2008—became the third qualifier this season to win a Tour title. Stakhovsky also won the Zagreb event as a qualifier.
“He was playing really good, I didn’t expect him to play that well,” confessed Stakhovsky.
“Obviously all the match he made it tough for me. He was strong on my serve; he was strong on his serve. I was just trying to keep in there as long as I could. That’s all I could really do today as he was playing much better than me. Any chance I got I was just trying to rally. I was serving for the match at 5-4 third set and he broke me to love and I was just trying to fight for every ball I could. I’m really, really pleased to win.”
Zeballos, who was participating in his fourth main draw event, won more total points that Stakhovsky (105-97), while winning more second serve points (61 to 38 percent). The young Argentine's lack of big match play cost him dearly in this match, but it was evident that with a rise of over 154 ranking positions from the start of year, the Marde Plata native will be a force on Tour for years to come.
“He played the big points better than me, that’s why he won the two tie-breaks,” lamented Zeballos.
“I missed a lot of chances in the second set, but he served really well in those moments. Maybe I should have tried to be more aggressive, but in that moment, especially in a final, it was really difficult because I was a little nervous. I’m really happy to reach this final. It was really close, so I’m really, really happy.”
Stakhovsky's excellent week in St. Petersburg featured wins over No. 6 seed Evgeny Korolev, and Tour retiree Marat Safin.
The 23-year-old Bratislava native improved his year-to-record to 15-14, while capturing 250 ATP World Tour points, and earning $118,500 in prize money.
Stakhovsky, who will take next week from the Tour, will set his sights on the qualification rounds of the Paris Masters 1000 event, which will take place in a weeks time.
Zeballos, who fell to 4-4 on the season, captured 150 ATP World Tour points for his efforts, and $62,500 in prize money. The Argentine will be in action week, participating in the main draw of the Basel, Switzerland event. Zeballos will face Richard Gasquet in round one.
Bank Austria Tennis Trophy—Vienna
Austrian Jurgen Melzer ended an 21 year title drought by hometown players in Vienna, upsetting top seed Marin Cilic 6-4, 6-3.
Spurred on by an electric full house, Melzer's superb afternoon of tennis was aided by his left-handed serve, which repeatedly opened up the court against his lanky opponent.
After capturing the first set on the strength of one break of serve, and one ace, Melzer began the second set in similar fashion, breaking Cilic's serve in the fifth game of the second set.
Melzer, who saved all five breaks points against his serve, withstood 10 aces from Cilic, while winning 73 percent of his first points during the one hour 32 minute final.
Cilic, who exhibited strong play in the beginning stages of the final, squandered a triple break point opportunity in the second game of the match. The tall Croat was bidding to win his third final of the year, recently finishing a runner up to Novak Djokovic in Beijing last month.
0 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete