An elbow injury and recurrent bouts of illness have troubled Mikhail Youzhny early in 2014.  The Russian with a stylish one-handed backhand had surprised most observers by reaching the US Open quarterfinals last fall, which raised his ranking inside the top 20.  But this year has been a different story.

Forced to retire in his first match after the New Year, Youzhny has compiled just three victories in singles across eight tournaments.  The 31-year-old has suffered setbacks against Bjorn Phau, Igor Sijsling, Robin Haase, and now Martin Klizan.  Entering the small ATP 250 tournament in Munich as a top-four seed, Youzhny must have hoped to halt his skid.  Although clay is his weakest surface, the world No. 17 won a title on it last summer and had claimed the Munich crown in 2010.

By contrast, Klizan has played only a handful of ATP main draws this year as he has sought to crack the top 100.  Currently ranked at No. 111, the Slovak did reach a quarterfinal on the South American clay of Sao Paulo in February.  He also notched solid wins in the Munich qualifying draw over Evgeny Korolev and Ricardas Berankis.  But Klizan compiled a woeful 12-24 record in ATP main draws last year, whereas Youzhny coupled the same number of losses with 39 victories.  

Form seemed likely to prevail after the Russian claimed a tight first set in a tiebreak, each man having served with exceptional efficiency.  This pattern would not continue in the second set, when Youzhny held serve only once as the level of both players dropped.  Once thrust into a final set on a surface as arduous as clay, fitness would become an issue for a man who had struggled with injuries this year.  Still, Youzhny and Klizan raised their intensity again in a third set that recalled the first, producing a worthy climax to the match.  Each man dropped serve only once in this set, and they faced a total of just four break points between them.  

In those circumstances, a tiebreak was inevitable, and Youzhny's success in the first-set tiebreak must have given him confidence.  But it was Klizan who seized the initiative when the match hung in the balance, sweeping the decisive tiebreak 7-2 to close out a hard-fought victory in two hours and 50 minutes.  He will face another Eastern European player, Denis Istomin, in the quarterfinals after Istomin battled through a grueling three-set encounter of his own.  Like Klizan, the Uzbek upset a Munich seed by knocking off Philipp Kohlschreiber in the first round.

On the coast of Portugal, by contrast, fortune generally smiled on the favorites.  Elena Vesnina needed 181 minutes to fight off Bojana Jovanovski in a third-set tiebreak that lasted 16 points.  But a more notable result may have come from Svetlana Kuznetsova, who rallied from losing the first set to close out Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor in dominant fashion.  Reaching her second WTA quarterfinal in two weeks, Kuznetsova has started to serve notice of her comeback from injury at an ideal time of the season for a former Roland Garros champion.  While Torro-Flor lacks the Russian's career credentials, she brought momentum from winning her first career title in Morocco last week and posed a relatively stiff early-round test.  

Key matches to watch in Portugal tomorrow include Kuznetsova's clash with Eugenie Bouchard as well as Vesnina's meeting with clay specialist Roberta Vinci.  In Munich, fans might be intrigued by two German men.  The 36-year-old Tommy Haas launches his title defense as he attempts to recover from a shoulder injury, while charismatic serve-volleyer Dustin Brown faces the equally charismatic clay specialist Fabio Fognini.