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8/27/10 4:11 AM | Ricky Dimon
Marcos Baghdatis' U.S. Open preparation finally comes to an end on Thursday night in New Haven, but not before Sergiy Stakvosky needs a third-set tiebreaker. Stakhovsky is through to the semifinals.
Sergiy Stakhovsky put an end to Marcos Baghdatis' strong U.S. Open Series campaign on Thursday, outlasting the Cypriot 5-7, 6-1, 7-6(4) in the quarterfinals of the Pilot Pen Tennis tournament. Stakhovsky needed two hours and 22 minutes to set up a meeting with Thiemo De Bakker.
It was Baghdatis, however, who maintained his fine form in the early going by getting off to a strong start. New Haven's No. 1 seed took care of his service games with ease in set one and he finally converted his seventh break chance of the night at 5-5. Stakhovsky saw one break point to force a tiebreaker, but Baghdatis saved it before closing out the set with an ace.
That's when Baghdatis, who finished runner-up in Washington and reached the Cincinnati semifinals, appeared to start running out of steam. Stakhovsky won the first four games of the second set before donating serve to put his opponent on the scoreboard. Nonetheless, the Ukrainian added a third break for 5-1 and fought through a difficult service game to force a final frame of play.
Stakhovsky continued to cruise when he seized an initial break in the third set for a 4-3 advantage. Baghdatis, however, broke right back for 4-4 and a decisive tiebreaker was necessary four service holds later. The world No. 47 earned the first mini-break for 3-1 and never looked back, taking it seven points to four.
Baghdatis wrapped up his effort with 10 aces, but he double-faulted five times and served at just 52 percent. Stakhovsky finished with nine aces while saving 12 of 15 break points.
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He'll need the next few days to rest up! His first serve percentage has been wobbly for the past few weeks - however 52% was better than several of the matches I have watched recently. Whenever I checked the stats it was down in the mid 40s! He'll have to improve on that too shorten the points if he is to survive 5-setters next week. And he could take a leaf out of Mardy's book and shed a few of those extra pounds!
ed251137 , 8/27/10 10:43 AM
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Good job, Stakho!
JacquesUkraine , 8/27/10 5:58 AM