Youzhny wins Malaysian Open championship

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- Mikhail Youzhny picked up his second ATP championship of the year with a three-set win Sunday over Andrey Golubev at the Malaysian Open.

Youzhny, seeded fourth, won the final four points of the deciding tie-breaker in topping Golubev 6-7 (7-9), 6-2, 7-6 (7-3). He won a tournament in Germany in May and, after Malaysia, has seven ATP titles to his credit.

Youzhny has also won nine of his last 10 matches, having advanced to the semifinals of the U.S. Open. It wasn't an easy path to the title, however, as all of his matches in Kuala Lumpur ran the full three sets.

Youzhny won 70 percent of the points on serve Sunday but still lost two service games. However, he didn't face a break point in the final set. Neither did Golubev, for that matter.

The advantage of the server held through the first six points of the tie-breaker before Youzhny came to the net and fired a winner for a 4-3 lead off a Golubev serve. He then held his own two serves and finished off the match on his first match point chance when Golubev's forehand landed long.

The $153,500 first-place check ran Youzhny's 2010 prize total to more than $1.4 million. Golubev collected $80,700 as the Malaysian Open runner-up.