Third-seeded Sebastien Grosjean reached his first ATP final of the season today, beating Karol Kucera of Slovakia 6-3, 6-2 in the semi-finals of $975,000 St Petersburg open. Grosjean will meet home-crowd favourite Mikhail Youzhny, who eliminated wild card entry Vladimir Voltchkov of Belarus 6-4, 6-3 in the other semi-final. Kucera, who beat top-seeded Andre Agassi in the second round here, came back from a break down twice in the opening set before Grosjean made a decisive break in game 6. The second set was a lopsided affair with the Frenchman, a Madrid Masters semifinalist last week, jumping to a 4-1 lead and comfortably winning. Youzhny, who won his first ATP title in Stuttgart in July, took the lead with an early break in the opening set. Voltchkov, who hadn’t drop a set here and knocked out two-time defending champion Marat Safin in the second round, broke back in the seventh game but lost his serve again in game 10. Stevenson, Henin in final LINZ (AUSTRIA): Alexandra Stevenson defeated fifth-seeded Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia 6-4, 7-6 (8/6) today to advance to the final of the $585,000 Generali Open. The American will face Belgium’s Justine Henin, the No. 4 seed, who beat seventh-seeded Chanda Rubin 7-6 (7/1), 6-4 in the other semi-final. Nalbandian in title round BASEL: Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez and David Nalbandian of Argentina today reached the final of the $1 million Swiss Indoors tournament. Gonzalez overcame second seed Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 while Nalbandian disappointed the crowd by defeating local hero Roger Federer 6-7 (7/2), 7-5, 6-3.
