2010 St. Petersburg Open; Preview of the first two quarter finals on Friday
The quarter final rounds at the 2010 St. Petersburg Open Men’s singles competition on Friday will highlight the number one seed and the 2004 winner Mikhail Youzhny, the third seed Janko Tipsarevic from Serbia and the eighth seeded
Romanian, Victor Hanescu. Moreover, the local wild card entrant Dmitry Tursunov, Alexandr Dolgopolov and Illya Marchenko are also among the quarterfinalists in Russia.
In the opening match of the day, Illya Marchenko will take on Benjamin Becker from Germany on centre court in their first ever meeting on the ATP World Tour.
The 23 year old Marchenko who turned professional back in 2005 is currently ranked number 99 in the South African Airways 2010 ATP list. He has so far reached the quarter final round in Zagreb, Marseille and Eastbourne this season.
The professional tennis player from Ukraine enters with a match record of 17-19 on the season. The right hander who achieved his career high ranking of world number 67 back in July this season is still looking for his first singles
ATP World tour title on the tour. He is playing in his fourth final right round in 2010.
The German tennis ace, Benjamin Becker, who is currently ranked number 57 on the tour, comes in with a win loss mark of 28-29 on the year. The 29 year old Benjamin who has so far won just a single crown in his career, made his
way into the semi final round in Halle, s-Hertogenbosch, Bangkok and quarter final in Delray Beach this year.
The right hander is coming off his first round exit at the Shanghai Rolex Masters in China where he was toppled in the opening round at the hands of Gael Monfils. A week later he advanced into the second round of the IF Stockholm
Open where the German was knocked down by the second seed and world number five, Robin Soderling. He is appearing in his fifth ATP World Tour quarter final or better of the year.
Second up is the professional tennis player from Kazakhstan, Mikhail Kukushkin who will play Janko Tipsarevic for the very first time in his career.
World number 88 Kukushkin who made his debut on the ATP World Tour back in 2006 recorded his season best result by making his way into the quarter final round of the PTT Thailand Open in Bangkok where the right hander was eventually
defeated by the top seed Rafael Nadal. He comes in with a win loss mark of 14-8 on the season and is still looking for his maiden title on the tour.
The Serbian tennis ace, Tipsarevic, who was also a quarterfinalist here back in 2008, is appearing in his sixth final eighth round of the season. The 26 year old has been to the final four or better thrice on the tour.
He has so far reached the final in s-Hertogenbosch, semi final in Chennai, Los Angeles and quarter final in Dubai and Washington in 2010. Janko, who achieved his career high ranking of world number 33 back in 2008, stands at a
win loss mark of 24-20 on the year. He is currently ranked number 46 in the South African Airways 2010 ATP list.
At the year’s final Grand Slam, the United States Open in New York, the professional tennis player from Serbia got the better of Olivier Rochus in the opening round before upsetting the ninth seed Andy Roddick from the United States
of America in the next round in four sets.The final score line was 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6(4).
He lost his next match at the hands of Gael Monfils however his victory over the American really boosted up his confidence and the Serbian has been performing quite well on the tour since then.
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