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Rookie Team Cap Dream Week With Moscow Title Rookie pairing Potito Starace and Sergiy Stakhovsky (pictured) captured their first ATP doubles title with a 7-6(4), 2-6, 10-6 victory over Stephen Huss and Ross Hutchins at the ATP Kremlin Cup in Moscow on Saturday. The Italian-Ukrainian team won 10 points less than their opponents and were broken three times but managed to prevail in the match tie-break after 1 hr., 27 min. The 22-year-old Stakhovsky, currently No. 167 in the Stanford ATP Doubles Rankings, was appearing in his first ATP doubles final. Earlier in the season he also captured his maiden ATP singles title in his first final at Zagreb. “It’s pretty nice winning the tournament, especially playing first time with Potito,” said Stakhovsky. “I believe it was a great week for us. I’m really happy to win this match today because it really was tough; I mean the guys were playing good. We showed some solid tennis in the semis and the final, and we were lucky not to play the quarters against Tursunov and Kunitsyn, which would have been a tough draw." “I’m really happy to win a title, it’s my second this year. So it’s really nice winning the tournament. Finals is one thing, but winning the tournament, in Moscow especially as it’s a place I love to play, it’s really nice for me.” World No. 120 Starace, aged 27, has now won three titles from four finals. He captured two titles in 2007 at Kitzbuhel (w/ Horna) and Acapulco (w/ Vassallo Arguello) and was runner-up at 2006 Acapulco (w/ Volandri). “I am very happy because I hadn’t won a tournament this year,” said Starace. “I am very happy because we played unbelievable doubles. We only signed up at the last moment and we can play maybe the next tournament then we’ll see. I have worked on my returns because two years ago I had a little problem; I had a good return on clay but maybe not as good on hard court. So now I think it’s much better and I can play also on this surface." Australian Huss and Hutchins of Great Britain were bidding for their second title in three weeks, after clinching their maiden title two weeks ago in Beijing (d. Fisher-Reynolds). The 32-year-old Huss, who captured the Wimbledon title in 2005 (w/ Moodie), was bidding for his fourth title, while the 23-year-old Hutchins was chasing his second trophy from three finals. They drop to a 10-7 team record. At the If Stockholm Open, Swedish wild cards Johan Brunstrom and Michael Ryderstedt reached their first ATP final with a hard fought 6-7(4), 6-4, 10-4 victory over second seeds Simon Aspelin and Julian Knowle on Saturday. Brunstrom and Ryderstedt first joined forces for a quarterfinal exit at Stockholm last year (l. to Hanley-Ullyett) and are playing in only their second ATP-level event. In the quarterfinals this week they surprised fourth seeds Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa, prevailing again in a match tie-break. World No. 82 Brunstrom reached his first ATP final at Bastad, where he finished runner-up with Jean-Julien Rojer, while, No. 238 Ryderstedt is through to his first final. Swedish-Austrian duo Aspelin and Knowle were looking to reach their first ATP final of the season and now have a 0-4 record in semifinals. At the Bank Austria-Tennis Trophy in Vienna, No. 4 seeds and first-time duo Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Andy Ram of Israel rallied to defeat No. 2 seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles 2-6, 6-3, 10-8 in one hour and 13 minutes. Mirnyi will attempt to capture his second ATP title of the season and 35th of his career. In February, he won in Delray Beach (w/J. Murray). Ram is looking to earn his third title of the year after triumphs at the Australian Open and AMS Indian Wells with countryman Jonathan Erlich, who is sidelined with an arm injury. Ram is trying to win his 14th career title. In the final they will face German-Austrian duo Philipp Petzschner and Alexander Peya, who defeated Spaniards Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco 7-6(0), 6-7(5), 10-5 to reach their first ATP team final. Their efforts this week, including a quarterfinal win over top seeds Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic, have taken their match record for the season to 9-3. In their three previous appearances in 2008 they made quarterfinal exits at Wimbledon and Tokyo, and reached the Newport semifinals. Petzschner is through to his maiden ATP doubles final, and is also contesting the singles final, while Peya is chasing his first title in his third final.
Friday: Hutchins-Huss Reach Second Team ATP Final ATP Profiles: Moscow | Stockholm | Vienna
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