By David Borges, Register Staff
dborges@newhavenregister.com

NEW HAVEN — His name sounds like that of a great composer, and his game, at times, resembles a work of art. But it’s tennis, not classical music, that is Sergiy Stakhovsky’s tableau.

Stakhovsky won for the fourth time in his career and second time this year, defeating Denis Istomin, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, in the Pilot Pen Tennis men’s final Saturday night before 5,316 at the Connecticut Tennis Center.

Stakhovsky, No. 47 in the world, mixed an effective, powerful serve with finesse, including the occasional drop shot that seemed to throw Istomin off his rhythm. His overhead smash finally sealed the deal, and the 24-year-old Ukrainian fell backward and lay momentarily in celebration — and relief — after notching his fourth ATP World Tour title.

“I’m really happy to be the winner of this match today,” Stakhovsky said. “It was definitely not easy.”

Indeed, Stakhovsky, the tourney’s No. 9 seed, had a rather grueling road to the finals. He played parts of two matches on both Wednesday and Thursday (including an upset of top-seeded Marcos Baghdatis), and three of his five matches this week went three sets.

“It was a long week,” Stakhovsky said. “It was really an exhausting week for me — a lot of three sets, a lot of tiebreaks, just a lot of time on court. Now I have to get myself together and get ready for the U.S. Open.”

If he can somehow get himself to the semifinals next week at Flushing Meadows, he should be just fine: Stakhovsky is now a perfect 4-0 when reaching the finals (and semifinals) of an ATP event, including 2-0 this season. Coupled with a win in the Netherlands in June, he becomes the first Ukrainian to win two titles in a season since Andrei Medvedev in 1994.

“It is significant,” Stakhovsky said. “But unfortunately, I have to catch so many things that he’s done that I have quite a lot of work to do because he won, I think, three Masters, final of a Grand Slam. Not easy. Not an easy task, but I’ll try.”

Continued from D1

Istomin, 23, fell short in his first trip to an ATP final. Continued...

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“I’m so happy to be in a final for the first time,” said Istomin, a native of Uzbekistan. “But also, it is not my last one. I hope soon that I can (be a) winner.”

Istomin, ranked 46th in the world and the tourney’s 15th seed, earned $51,300 for his runner-up finish.

With a booming serve clocked at as high as 126 miles-per-hour, Istomin won the first set handily. But Stakhovsky broke Istomin’s serve in the second game of the second set, and the momentum seemed to shift.

“(To) break a player like Istomin is more or less the key,” Stakhovsky said. “He’s serving very well. It’s not his first serve, his second serve, he’s placing it very well. He’s moving the ball around. It’s not easy to guess.”

At the start of the third set, Istomin had some trouble with the tension in his racket and switched to a different one.

“I started to play better on the baseline (and make) less mistakes,” Istomin said. “But he already had the confidence after the second set, and he didn’t give me the chance.”

Stakhovsky broke Istomin again in the third set, paving the way to victory.

“He played well today,” Stakhovsky said. “Except those two games where I broke him.”

Istomin, who had injured his leg badly in a car wreck in April 2001 and didn’t touch a racket for the next two years, feels he’s finally getting back to where he needs to be as a player.

“My mother (and coach) tells me always, when I start to work again in tennis, just believe yourself and try to come back and start to play. Now, the results: I am in the final ... When you believe in yourself, you can do anything.” Continued...

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Still, Stakhovsky’s experience in the finals may have carried the day in the end.

“Maybe I was a little more relaxed than he was,” Stakhovsky said. “After winning the first set, maybe he felt he could close it down. It didn’t really help him a lot. I’m really glad to win this title. It pushed me to another level again.”

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