By Alberto Amalfi
© Melchior A. DiGiacomo

(October 3, 2010) Mikhail Youzhny has reached title heights indoors. The fourth-seeded Youzhny collected his second tournament title of the season with today's 6-7(7), 6-2, 7-6(3) victory over eighth-seeded Andrey Golubev in the Kuala Lumpur final.

It is the seventh career championship for Youzhny, who reached the US Open semifinals last month and took the title without playing his best tennis.

"It was four very tough matches for me," Youzhny said. "It was my first tournament indoors after the US Open Series and for me it was good. I cannot say I showed by best tennis here, but, although it’s good when you show your best tennis and win the tournament, it’s probably better sometimes when you don’t show your really best game but you have a really good result."

Golubev, who beat top-seeded Robin Soderling in the quarterfinals then edged David Ferrer,  7-5, 7-6(4) in the semifinals, fought back from a 3-6 deficit in the first-set tie breaker to take a one-set lead. Youzhny responded with a strong second set and squeezed out the third.

"It was a really tough match, a very close match," Youzhny said. "I should have won the first set, when you lead 6-3 in the tie break indoors usually you should take the set. I came back well and I played a really good second set. In the final set it was really close. Unfortunately, when you win 7-6 in the third set in the last match, you have to be a little bit luckier than him.”

The World No. 41 from Kazakhstan said fatigue was a factor.

"We both played very well, except my second set, but I was a little bit tired," Golubev said. "I played very good matches against Soderling and Ferrer, that’s why I was a little bit down. I needed the set to relax, to get some energy for the third set. He played very good points, at 4-4, 15-30 I had chances to maybe break him, but he played well. In the tie-break at 4-3, the next two points decided it.

"I’m happy about the tournament, because when I came here I was feeling pretty good physically and mentally and I beat a Top 10 guy. It’s good for me and I know I can play against top guys and in the future I can improve my game and I will do my best in the next tournament."