Andy Murray battled past third seed Mikhail Youzhny in three sets to reach the final of the St Petersburg Open and maintain his slim hopes of playing in next month’s Masters Cup.

Murray eventually needed a just over two and a half hours to tie up the 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (7-1) to see off home favourite Youzhny, one of his direct rivals for the remaining places in Shanghai, but had briefly threatened a far more straightforward victory as he stormed into a 4-0 first set lead. Youzhny finally held serve to make it 4-1 but had rarely threatened Murray as he served out the set.

World No19 Youzhny, however, continued to improve, finally forcing a break point in the fourth game of the second set. Murray dug deep to hold, but Youzhny continued to keep him under pressure before finally breaking him in the final game of the set.

Murray appeared to be losing his composure, racking up an increasing number of unforced errors before alternate forehands into the net and then beyond the baseline saw him broken in the fourth game of the decider. Immediately he had two points to break back, but Youzhny found powerful serves to eventually hold for 4-1.

After three more games the home favourite served for the match but Murray dug in and claimed a match-saving break to stay alive. Youzhny forced a match-point in the next game only for the Briton to scramble for a morale-boosting hold to make it 5-5.

The match went to a tie-break and Murray raced into a 4-0 lead before Youzhny’s double fault handed him a 7-1 win and a place in the final where he will meet either Marian Cilic or Fernando Verdasco.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 27th, 2007 at 6:35 pm While Dave was in Money. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.