Fri Oct 26 16:04:51 2007

Comment | Email | Print

Murray, Youzhny reach St. Petersburg semis; Davydenko fined

---

St. Petersburg, Russia (Sports Network) - Second-seeded Scotsman Andy Murray and third-seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny were quarterfinal winners Friday at the $1 million St. Petersburg Open.

Murray overcame fifth-seeded Russian crowd favorite Dmitry Tursunov 3-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, while Youzhny was leading seventh-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-4 when the German retired due to an illness after the first set on the indoor carpet at SCC Peterburgsky. Youzhny captured this tournament in 2004 and was the runner-up in 2002.

Murray and Youzhny will square off in Saturday's semifinals.

Sixth-seeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco vaulted into the semis with a 6-3, 6-4 upset of fourth-seeded Italian Potito Starace. Verdasco's final four opponent will be Croatian qualifier Marin Cilic, who got past Latvian Ernests Gulbis 6-4, 6-4.

Also on Friday, Russian star Nikolay Davydenko was fined $2,000 for a lack of effort in his second-round loss here on Thursday. Davydenko is already at the center of a betting investigation.

The ATP said the world No. 4 Russian was fined for lack of "best effort" in his three-set loss Thursday to Cilic.

A top-seeded Davydenko drew a warning from the chair umpire in the third set on Thursday. The Russian committed four double faults in the second set and six more in the third.

"When I made a double fault, he gave me a notice for a wrong behavior on the court as if I was throwing the match," Davydenko said. "I was surprised. I've never heard anything like this before. No matter how I'd played, no matter what had happened to me, I was never given such a notice."

The ATP is already investigating a Davydenko match from August, when an on- line gambling company, Betfair, noticed irregular betting patterns in his match against Argentine Martin Vassallo Arguello, who wound up winning when the Russian retired in the third set due to an injury in Sopot.

The 2007 St. Petersburg champion will take home $142,000.