Murray: Fourth final

Andrew Murray booked his place in the final of the St Petersburg Open with a three-set victory over Mikhail Youzhny.

The 20-year-old raced into a 4-0 lead against the local hope and former champion before clinching the first set 6-2, but Youzhny upped his game in the second.

The Russian landed 70 percent of his first serves to keep tabs on Murray, and forced the decisive break in controversial circumstances in the 12th game to take it 7-5.

Youzhny’s ‘winner’ looked out on set point but a furious Murray was unable to question the decision because he had already used his two hawk-eye challenges.

Under pressure

In a see-saw decider, Youzhny looked to have gained a crucial break of serve to lead 5-3, but he double-faulted at 30-0 in the next as Murray hit back to level.

The Briton was under pressure to save the tie in the 10th game - having to save a match point before leveling at 5-5.

The inevitable tie-breaker was a one-sided affair though, with Murray charging to a 7-1 victory after his opponent double-faulted on match point.

Fernando Verdasco of Spain stands between Murray and a second title of the season after the sixth seed despatched Marin Cilic 6-2 6-3.

Key moment

“Of course, the match point was the key moment,” Murray said after the two-and-a-half-hour epic.

“I thought I’d lost. When I won that, he got nervous and made quite a lot of mistakes. The game at 5-3 when I broke his serve was very important too.

“I hadn’t broken him since early in the match but then I hit some good returns, he made a couple of mistakes and the match started to become even again.”

World number 30 Verdasco just had too much experience for the 102nd-ranked Cilic, who was playing in only the second semi-final of his career after upsetting world number four Nikolay Davydenko in the second round.

“It’s true, his ranking was low but he knocked out top seed Davydenko, so I wasn’t taking him easy,” said the Spaniard.

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Tags: Murray, edges, Youzhny

Posted on October 28th, 2007 by Klaus Roe
Filed under: Question of Sport