Two-time champion Marat Safin
moved into the quarterfinals, while top-seeded former winner Mikhail
Youzhny exited the draw Thursday at the $750,000 St. Petersburg Open.
The unseeded former world No. 1 Safin was leading fifth-seeded fellow Russian
Igor Andreev 6-3, 0-1 when Andreev retired from the second-round affair,
citing a left knee injury.
The 2000 and 2001 St. Petersburg titlist Safin is making his final
appearance here, as he intends to retire from the ATP World Tour at season's
end.
Safin's opponent on Friday will be Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin, who was leading
Youzhny 6-2, 2-1 when the Russian retired due to a lower back injury. The
2004 St. Petersburg titlist Youzhny was fresh off his title last week in his
native Moscow.
In other second-round play, Ukrainian qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky stopped
Russian wild card Andrey Kuznetsov 6-1, 6-4 and Igor Kunitsyn handled wild
card and fellow Russian Michail Elgin 6-2, 6-3 on the indoor hardcourts at
SCC Peterburgsky.
The other quarterfinals will pit second-seeded Romanian Victor Hanescu against
Kunitsyn, eighth-seeded Argentine Horacio Zeballos versus Latvian Ernests
Gulbis and German Bjorn Phau against Stakhovsky.
The 2009 St. Petersburg titlist will collect $115,150.
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