Youzhny, Kukushkin to vie in Russia

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Russian Mikhail Youzhny and Kazakhstan's Mikhail Kukushkin will square off for the St. Petersburg Open title after both won semifinals matches Saturday.

No. 1 seed Youzhny played a tense third-set tiebreaker, saving four match points before downing fellow Russian Dmitry Tursunov, 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (10-8). Youzhny got hot late in the tiebreaker, storming back from a 6-3 deficit to deny Tursunov.

He eventually prevailed in a match that lasted just over three hours.

In the day's other semifinal, Kukushkin emerged with a 6-3, 6-4 win over the Ukraine's Ilya Marchenko in a relatively easy affair that lasted just 95 minutes. Kukushkin broke serve for a 5-4 lead in the second set to reach his first career WTP finals.

Youzhny, who won the St. Petersburg event in 2004, beat Kukushkin in their lone previous meeting, a 6-2, 6-1 rout in the 2009 Moscow semifinals.