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City news, 24.09.2012 10:21

Klizan captures maiden tennis crown in St Petersburg

Klizan captures maiden tennis crown in St Petersburg

Slovakian world number 45 Martin Klizan captured his first ATP title on Sunday when he defeated Italy's Fabio Fognini 6-2, 6-3 in the final of the St. Petersburg Open.

He is the first Slovakian to win a tour title since Dominik Hrbaty triumphed at Marseille in February 2004.
Third-seeded Klizan, who put out top seed Mikhail Youzhny in a marathon semi-final on Saturday, is set to rise to around a career-high world No. 33 in the world rankings as a result of his victory.
Until two months ago, 23-year-old Klizan had never won back-to-back tour-level matches.
However, since the end of July he has reached the semi-finals in Kitzbuhel and knocked out world number six Jo-Wilfried Tsonga en route to a fourth-round showing at the US Open.
"I said last year that I would like to be Top 100 by the end of this year and I've already done it," said Klizan.
"Now I've been Top 50, Top 40, maybe I can be Top 30 at the end of the year. I hope I can be healthy and still with enough power to play until the end of the season. I've played many, many great weeks."
The 25-year-old Fognini was contesting his second final having also finished runner-up to Gilles Simon in Bucharest.
"It's horrible to play a final like this," said Fognini. "I've played two finals this year. Simon in Bucharest was a really great final; we played one hour and 50 minutes and I lost. On the court today he played his best tennis ever and I did not play my best tennis for sure."

News source: Bangkok Post

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