Now the best one

The Ukrainian tennis player Serhii Stakhovsky has won the 15th St. Petersburg Open international tournament (total prize money USD750,000), UNIAN reports. The week before last the 23-year-old athlete crushed the resistance of Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos in a fierce encounter. This was Stakhovsky’s first title in the current season and the second one in his career. Earlier, the Ukrainian player had won the Zagreb tournament in 2008. Stakhovsky began his journey to the coveted Petersburg tournament final in the qualification round. After qualifying, Serhii outplayed Yevgeni Koroliov 6:4 6:3 in the first round’s two sets and defeated Andrei Kuznetsov 6:1 6:4 and Bjorn Phau 6:2 7:5. Finally, he beat Horacio Zeballos 2:6 7:6 7:6 in a game that continued for two hours and 20 minutes. This was Stakhovsky’s second ATP singles win. For this victory at St. Petersburg Open 2009, Stakhovsky has earned $118.500 in prize money and 250 ATP ranking points, while the runner-up Zeballos will receive $62.300 and 150 points, respectively.