Tue Oct 23 18:56:18 2007

Comment | Email | Print

Murray, Youzhny win St. Petersburg openers

---

St. Petersburg, Russia (Sports Network) - Second-seeded Brit Andy Murray and third-seeded Russian favorite Mikhail Youzhny were among Tuesday's first-round winners at the $1 million St. Petersburg Open.

Murray mauled Belarusian Max Mirnyi 6-2, 6-2, while the 2004 St. Petersburg champion and 2002 runner-up Youzhny dropped American Justin Gimelstob 6-2, 6-4 on the indoor carpet at SCC Peterburgsky.

Fourth-seeded Italian Potito Starace moved on with a 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) decision against Belgian Kristof Vliegen.

Last year's St. Petersburg titlist, Mario Ancic, notched a Day-2 win by besting Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti 6-4, 6-1. The Croatian Ancic, who beat Sweden's Thomas Johansson in last year's finale here, will encounter Youzhny in the second round.

Other opening-round wins came for Croatian qualifier Marin Cilic, Russian qualifier Mikhail Ledovskikh, Chilean Nicolas Massu, Italian Simone Bolelli and Czech qualifier Lukas Dlouhy, who will face Murray in the round of 16.

This week's top seed, Russian star Nikolay Davydenko, will open his stay here against Italian Filippo Volandri on Wednesday.

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