Slovak Martin Klizan reached his first ATP Final after coming back from a set down to beat the top seed Mikhail Youzhny of Russia in a three set drama 6-7 (11) 6-4 7-6 (3) in today’s St. Petersburg Open semis.
The game was full of twists and turns as first Klizan threw away a huge opportunity to go a set up, but he failed to capitalise on a 5-3 lead and after he wasn’t able to convert any of his three set points in the tiebreak, the Russian captured the first set.
In the second set, it was Youzhny who got ahead 4-2 just before Klizan fought his way back into the match. The Slovak managed to win four consecutive games to level the encounter at one set apiece.
After Klizan broke the Russian in the sixth game of the decider and was serving for the place in the final at 5-3, it all looked done and dusted. However, the drama didn’t end here. Youzhny literally stormed to take the next two games, not allowing the Slovak a single point and another tiebreak was to decide the outcome of this spectacular match. After an unbelievable 3 hours and 49 minutes, it was the world no.45 Klizan who kept his composure and rallied to take the ‘breaker’ 7-3.
Klizan will face Italy’s Fabio Fognini in tomorrow’s final.
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