Romanians needed in Russia
The third-seeded Serbian Janko Tipsarevic of origin and Victor Hanescu, eighth-seeded from Romania, have advanced to the second round of the St. Petersburg Open with wins final on Tuesday.
Tipsarevic, 46th Racquet World, beat Russian Igor Kunitsyn 6-4, 6-2. For its part, Hanescu eliminated finalist of the tournament in 2009, Argentine Horacio Zeballos, in two sets 6-2, 6-0 after only 54 minutes of play
Tipsarevic, who rolled past Andy Murray during the match of the quarterfinals of the 2008 tournament, broke Kunitsyn three times. He had seven aces, has made 10 winners and lost just five points from their opening nine laps in the service to overcome the 106th player in the world in one hour, four minutes.
Hanescu, 52th player in the world, has won eight consecutive games and has never faced a break point.
Hanescu will face the next round American qualifier Rajeev Ram, who made 17 aces to finally topple the Spaniard Pablo Andujar 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-3. Ram, 166th in the world, reached the second round of an ATP tournament for the first time since he lost to Andy Roddick in Atlanta last July.
Earlier Tuesday, the sixth-seeded Uzbek Denis Istomin had withdrew after injuring his right knee when he trailed 6-2, 2-2 against Ukraine’s Illya Marchenko.
On the other hand, the French Paul-Henri Mathieu has advanced with the Argentine Maximo Gonzalez 6-4, 6-3, and qualifier Evgeny Donskoy recorded its first victory on the ATP tour, beating his compatriot Russian Andrey Kuznetsov 7-5, 7-6 (2).