Martin Klizan is through to the final of the St. Petersburg Open after upsetting top-seed Mikhail Youzhny in three sets.
The Slovakian dropped the opening set in a tie break, but fought back to take the remaining sets and 6-7 6-4 7-6 victory.
Youzhny overcame a 5-3 deficit in the first set and saved three set points in the tiebreaker to win it only for Klizan to battle from 4-2 down in the second.
The 23-year-old broke Youzhny in the sixth game of the decider and led 5-2 but could not score a single point in the next three games and it went to a second tiebreaker.
Klizan regained his composure when it mattered, commenting: "I was fighting from the beginning to the end, that's why I think I won.
"Because I had a very big motivation and I really wanted to win. I had some problems with my back but still was fighting for each point."
The third-seeded Klizan will face fourth-seeded Fabio Fognini of Italy, who beat Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain 6-3 6-4 in the other semi-final.
