Saint Petersburg, Russia - Ukraine's qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky battled from a set down to win the $750,000 St Petersburg ATP event, beating Argentine's Horacio Zeballos in the final here on Sunday.
The 23-year-old Stakhovsky won 2-6, 7-6 (10/8), 7-6 (9/7) in two hours 19 minutes in his first ever head-to-head meeting with eighth seed Zeballos, ranked 54th in the world.
The 24-year-old south-handed Zeballos started confidently, breaking his rival's serve three times in the opening set to take it in 26 minutes, while Stakhovsky, who showed signs of nerves, managed to reply only on one occasion.
The second set went to the tiebreak, which Stakhovsky won to level at one set all after one hour 20 minutes on court.
Continues Below ↓
In the deciding set games went with serve until the seventh, when Stakhovsky, currently 93rd in the world, broke for a 5-3 lead.
However, Zeballos picked up steam and broke back to level at 5-5 forcing another tiebreak, which Stakhovsky picked off to clinch his second career title.
The winner Stakhovsky received a silver trophy and a 118,500-dollar prize purse, while runner-up Zeballos pocketed $62,300. - Sapa-AFP
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
