Kafelnikov’s countryman, Mikhail Youzhny, has defeated Ivan Dodig of Croatia in the quarter final of PBZ Zagreb Indoors. Youzhny won the match in the straight sets by 6-3, 6-2.
It was a fully one-sided clash dominated by Youzhny. The Russian player needed just 64 minutes to wrap up the proceedings.
This was the first time that these two players were taking on each other.
In the first set, both the players started in a steady fashion. Neither of the two players dropped his serve in the first five games. Youzhny eventually got a breakthrough in the sixth game and then, he held his serve in the seventh game to make the score 5-2.
Dodig didn’t manage to recover from the blow that he got in the 6th game. Youzhny served out the 9th game and thus, won the set by 6-3.
In the second set, Youzhny started brilliantly and with two consecutive serve breaks, he took a lead of 4-0. After that, he just needed to hold his serve to win the match and he did exactly that. With serve hold in the 6th and the 8th game; he sealed the second set and thus, the match as well.
In the post match interview, Youzhny said, “It’s a great tournament and I love playing here. The spectators here are really nice. Today, I was playing against a local guy, but, even after that, whenever I played a good shot, people clapped. So, that was really nice.”
“I have won back to back matches in straight sets which has boosted my confidence. Hopefully, in the next two matches, I would continue playing well.”
In the next match, Youzhny will face another Croatian player Marin Cilic who made his way into the semi finals with a comfortable victory over Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia.