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  • Only Golubev stands between Murray and another title

    10/25/08 11:32 PM | Ricky Dimon
    - Now it’s up to unheralded Andrey Golubev do deny Andy Murray a second title in two weeks and a second straight title in St. Petersburg.

    Andy Murray is one match away from winning two consecutive tournaments (Madrid last week) and two St. Petersburg trophies in-a-row (defeated Fernando Verdasco in the 2007 final). All he needs to do is take care of little-known wildcard Andrey Golubev, from Kazakhstan. Not surprisingly, in will be their first career head-to-head encounter.

    Don’t completely write off Golubev, however, as he has been defying odds throughout the week. He came into St. Petersburg having won just two matches at the ATP level this season. The No. 150 player in the world had to win three qualifying matches just to get into the main draw. Golubev has to be brimming with confidence right now, though. In four matches since qualifying he dispatched Olivier Rochius, Marat Safin, and Mischa Zverev before destroying Victor Hanescu in the semifinals.

    Murray, however, is a completely different beast. He is the clear-cut No. 4 player in the world and in most eyes has already turned tennis' “Big 3” into a “Big 4.” In addition to winning the Madrid title last week (and upsetting Roger Federer in the semifinals) and finishing runner-up in Flushing Meadows, where he stunned Rafael Nadal in the semifinals, the 21-year-old Scot won the Masters Series Cincinnati earlier in the summer. This year he also won two titles leading up to the Australian Open, reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon, and made it to the semifinals of the Masters Series Canada. So far in St. Petersburg, Murray has taken out Viktor Troicki, Ernests Gulbis, Janko Tipsarevic, and Verdasco all in straight sets.

    Stranger things have happened—and a lot of strange things have happened in tennis this year—but Golubev upsetting Murray would be borderline unbelievable. Murray’s serve is in rare form and his return game thwarts any real advantage his opponents have on their serve. Golubev has handled the pressure this week remarkably well, but an ATP final is a whole different story. Murray in two routine sets is the pick.

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