Klizan, Fognini reach St. Petersburg final

11:27 AM, Sep 22, 2012   |    comments
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St. Petersburg, Russia (Sports Network) - Martin Klizan and Fabio Fognini won their respective semifinal matches on Saturday at the St. Petersburg Open.

The third-seeded Klizan outlasted top-seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny 6-7 (11-13), 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) in a match that lasted almost four hours.

Klizan, who will be playing in his first career title match, is the second Slovakian to reach an ATP World Tour final this season (Lukas Lacko was runner-up in Zagreb in Feb.)

The former top-10 star Youzhny titled in St. Petersburg in 2004 and was the runner-up in 2002 and 2010.

Meanwhile, fourth-seeded Italian Fognini took down Spain's Daniel Gimeno- Traver by a 6-3, 6-4 margin.

Fognini will appear in his second career final after finishing runner-up at Bucharest earlier this year.

The 2012 St. Petersburg champion will earn $70,365.

The Sports Network