St. Petersburg Final Preview

© St. Petersburg OpenHoracio Zeballos is through to his first ATP World Tour final.

Qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine and first-time ATP World Tour finalist No. 8 seed Horacio Zeballos of Argentina meet for the first time on Sunday in the championship of the St. Petersburg Open. Both players defeated Russian opponents in the semi-finals. Stakhovsky is trying to become the third qualifier to capture an ATP World Tour title this year, while Zeballos is looking to become the sixth first-time winner on the ATP World Tour in 2009. Zeballos has not dropped a set en route to the final while Stakhovsky has lost one set.  

WHAT’S AT STAKE –
Winner:             $118,500 and 250 South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking points                   Runner-up:        $ 62,300 and 150 South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking points
 
FINALS HISTORY –
 Stakhovsky:     Appearing in his 2nd  ATP World Tour final………………He is 1-0 in finals
 Zeballos:         Appearing in his 1st ATP World Tour final 

2009 FIRST-TIME WINNERS – Zeballos is trying to become the sixth first-time winner on the ATP World Tour this year, the first since Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci in Gstaad on Aug. 2

                                        Age Tournament
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, ESP 25 Kitzbuehel
Benjamin Becker           GER 28 ‘s-Hertogenbosch
Rajeev Ram                  USA 25 Newport
Jeremy Chardy              FRA 22 Stuttgart
Thomaz Bellucci            BRA  21 Gstaad
   
CHAMPIONSHIP HEAD-TO-HEADS –

(Q) Sergiy Stakhovsky (UKR) vs Horacio Zeballos (ARG)   First Meeting

Stakhovsky FastFacts:
2009 Highlights:
QF: Doha (l Murray); Zagreb (l Troicki); Moscow (l Youzhny)
YTD W-L: 15-14
YTD Titles: 0
Career Titles: 1
Date of Birth: January 6, 1986
South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 93

• Stakhovsky, 23,  the top player from Ukraine at No. 93 in the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings, is appearing in his first ATP World Tour final of the season and second of his career
• His previous ATP World Tour final came in February 2008 in Zagreb where he captured his first ATP World Tour title (d. Ljubicic) to become the first lucky loser to win a tour title since Christian Miniussi in 1991…He achieved a career-high ranking of No. 74 on Nov. 17, 2008
• The qualifier for the second straight week has defeated No. 6 seed Evgeny Korolev 64 63 in the first round, Russian wild card Andrey Kuznetsov 61 64, German Bjorn Phau 62 75 and two-time St. Petersburg winner Marat Safin 64 46 64 in the semi-finals
• He is the sixth qualifier to reach an ATP World Tour final this year (2-3 in finals)…The previous qualifiers to win a title were German Benjamin Becker in ‘s-Hertogenbosch in June and Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci in Gstaad in August
• Last week in Moscow he reached the quarter-finals, falling to eventual champion Mikhail Youzhny
• He has a 15-14 record in ATP World Tour level play this season (12-8 on hard courts) and 15-12 in Challenger action, reaching the final in Mons earlier this month (l. Tipsarevic)
• He started the year by reaching the quarter-finals in Doha with wins over C. Rochus and Peya before falling to eventual champion and World No. 4 Andy Murray...Then advanced to the quarter-finals at Zagreb in February with wins over Hrbaty and Karlovic before bowing out to Troicki

Zeballos FastFacts:
2009 Highlights:
YTD W-L: 5-3
Career Titles: 0
Date of Birth: April 27, 1985
South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 54

• Zeballos, 24, is appearing in his first ATP World Tour final in his fourth career ATP level tournament
• The left-hander from Buenos Aires has not dropped a set with wins over Igor Kunitsyn 76(7) 63 in the semi-finals, Ernests Gulbis 76(8) 64 in the quarter-finals, qualifier Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr. 63 61 in the second round and another qualifier, Yuri Schukin 76(9) 63 in the first round
• He enters with a 5-3 record and prior to this week his only previous tour level win came over Michael Berrer at the US Open where he qualified…He then lost to No. 18 Tomas Berdych in four sets in the second round
• There have been two Argentine winners on the ATP World Tour this year – Juan Martin del Potro (three titles) and David Nalbandian (one)
• He has put together his best season as a pro, compiling a 48-14 match record and winning five titles on the Challenger circuit…He has jumped from No. 209 at the end of ’08 to a career-high No. 54 this week…If he wins he will move to around No. 35 and around No. 41 with a runner-up effort
• The Argentine captured all five titles in South America (two in Colombia and one each in Ecuador, Brazil and his native country)

DOUBLES FINAL – BRITISH DUO FLEMING-SKUPSKI  TAKE ON FRENCHMEN CHARDY-GASQUET

The British tandem of Colin Fleming and Ken Skupski meet the French duo of Jeremy Chardy and Richard Gasquet in Sunday’s St. Petersburg Open doubles championship.

Fleming and Skupski held off the veteran Israeli duo of Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram 6-4, 3-6, 10-6 in the semi-finals en route to their second ATP World Tour final. Just over one month ago they captured their first ATP World Tour title in Metz.

Chardy and Gasquet have not dropped a set in three matches en route to the final. Chardy is appearing in his first career ATP World Tour doubles final and Gasquet his fourth final (2-1). Gasquet’s last final and title came in Sydney in January 2008 (w/Tsonga).