Wed Oct 22 13:50:33 2008

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Murray, Safin win Moscow openers; Davydenko pulls out

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St. Petersburg, Russia (Sports Network) - Top-seeded and defending champion Andy Murray of Scotland and two-time winner Marat Safin highlighted Wednesday's winners, while Russian star Nikolay Davydenko pulled out at the $1.49 million St. Petersburg Open.

The U.S. Open runner-up Murray, fresh off his big title at the Madrid Masters last week, stayed hot with a 6-3, 6-3 first-round handling of rising Serbian Viktor Troicki on Day 3 on the indoor carpet at SCC Peterburgsky. Murray defeated Spaniard Fernando Verdasco in last year's St. Petersburg finale.

A third-seeded Verdasco moved into the quarterfinals with a 6-1, 6-3 second- round victory over Latvian wild card Karlis Lejnieks.

An eighth-seeded Safin, meanwhile, topped Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-2, 6-4 in the opening round. The former world No. 1 and two-time major champion Safin was the back-to-back St. Petersburg titlist in 2000 and 2001.

In other action on Wednesday, German Rainer Schuettler topped Slovakian Dominik Hrbaty 6-3, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals and qualifier Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan grounded Belgian Olivier Rochus 6-1, 6-4 to reach the second round. Schuettler will face Verdasco in a quarterfinal here on Friday.

In some more second-round action here on Thursday, Murray will meet rising Latvian Ernests Gulbis, while Safin will encounter Golubev. Davydenko was slated to meet fellow Russian Michail Elgin here on Day 4, but the second- seeded star pulled out of the draw, citing a wrist injury.

The 2008 titlist here will collect $171,000.