2010 St. Petersburg: Wednesday Men’s Singles Review
As play finished on Wednesday in St. Petersburg, a total of seven singles matches were played. With five first round and two second round matches scheduled for the day, a lot of important results were seen on the scoreboard.
With none of the top seeds receiving byes, second seed Sergiy Stakhovsky from Ukraine faced the unseeded German, Benjamin Becker, for the first matchup of the day. The 2009 St. Petersburg champion had an upsetting start to the
tournament as he was defeated by Becker and was forced to exit the tournament in the first round. With odds stacked against him evidently, Becker brought a show of excellent tennis to the court having served eight aces. Winning the first set, Becker faced
a minor hiccup losing the second set 5-7. However, serving five of the total eight aces in the third set, the German bounced back and secured a place for himself in the second round.
In another battle of the day, fourth seed Lu Yen-Hsun from Taiwan met the Italian Potito Starace in one of the side courts of the complex. The number one Asian tennis player managed an easy straight set win over the Italian to
move on into the second round. He humiliated Starace with a twin set score of 6-2, 6-2.
Starace’s countryman, Fabio Fognini also met with similar fate as he played his first round match yesterday. He entered the court after his compatriot to take on Alexandr Dolgopolov from Ukraine. Dolgopolov comes into the tournament
after a good run in the Kremlin Cup only last week. It seems that good luck has followed him to St. Petersburg as well, as he won his first round match to ensure the exit of the only remaining Italian in the tournament. Dolgopolov won the match 7-6, 6-4 to
move on into the tournament. With Fognini’s exit, Italy loses all chances of a title win.
Russian legend and first seed Mikhail Youzhny entered court on Wednesday to play the unseeded German Daniel Brands. A favourite to win the title this year, Mikhail gave an excellent performance as he departed Brands from the tournament
with a straight set win. Mikhail won the sets 6-4, 6-2 to ensure a spot in the title run.
Another favourite to win, was the fifth seed Serbian Viktor Troicki - 2010 Kremlin Cup winner. However, with what was an upsetting and surprising turn of events, Troicki lost his first round matchup to unseeded German Rainer Schuttler.
With another German upsetting a seeded player in the same day, Schuttler gave an excellent show of tennis even though Troicki managed six aces in the match to Schuttler’s score of zero. Schuttler quickly won the first set 6-3; however he lost the second set
4-6 to the Serb. Eventually, Schuttler bounced back in the third set to win it 6-3 and in effect the match.
The first second round match of the tournament played today was between the Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin and the Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili. As the two battled it out for a spot in title run, the Kazakh proved to have an edge over
the Russian, even though the latter enjoyed home court advantage. In their first ever on court meeting, Kukushkin won the match 6-3, 6-4 to advance into the quarterfinals and make their head to head score 1-0 in the Kazakh’s favour.
3rd seed Janko Tipsarevic from Serbia also played his second round match as he met the American Michael Russell. Tipsarevic enjoyed an easy straight set win over the American to advance into the quarterfinals. The final
match score was 6-2, 7-5.
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