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• october

Kuznetsov's brilliant debut

The $750 000 prize money St.Petersburg Open 2009 tournament goes on in Russia's Northern Capital. The third day started with a success for the Russian fans. Igor Andreev of Moscow needed a little more than an hour to beat the strong Italian Potito Starace (6-4, 6-2). Another pleasant surprise was made by the 18-year-old Russian Andrey Kuznetsov who received the organizers' wild card to enter the tournament main draw. He gave in to the 23-year-old Spaniard Granollers at a tie-break but won the second set - also at a tie-break. This made him feel more confident and he also took the third deciding set 6-4.

At the same time there was another match on Court 1 where the Ukrainians also felt victorious. First Dolgopolov bounced the famous American Robby Ginepri (6-2, 1-0, ret), then Ilya Marchenko overplayed another Italian Fabio Fognini in an exciting match 6-4, 6-1.

The fifth match of the day featured Oracio Zeballos (Argentina) and Yury Schukin (Kazakhstan) - the South American was victorious 7-6(9), 6-3. Another confident performance was shown by the French Jeremy Chardy who overplayed the young Romanian Luncanu 6-2, 6-2.

The spectators were eager to see Marat Safin who played a doubles match today. Paired with Igor Kunitsyn, he was close to a victory over the South American team Cuevas/Zeballos but super tie-break decided the match result in favour of Cueavas and Zeballos - 7-6(6), 2-6, 10-8.

The tournament spectators saw another super tie-break today during the doubles match Andreev/Youzhny vs. Chekhov/Rudnev. Andreev and Youzhny won 6-7 (4), 6-4, 10-5. And the famous Czech pair Friedl/Levinsky overplayed Brunstrom (Sweden)/Rojer (AHO) 7-6, 6-7, 11-9.

The evening session brought good news for the fans of Mikhail Elgin from St. Petersburg who overplayed Mikhail Kukushkin (Kazakhstan) 6-3, 6-3 thus making his way into the second round for the second time in a row.

Today's last match between Evgeny Korolev (Russia) and Sergey Stakhovsky (Ukraine) underlined the Russian-Ukrainian rivalry of the day. The Russians led 3-2 but Sergey's victory (6-4, 6-3) balanced the situation.

The spectators will see other exciting matches tomorrow at SCC. Playing in the morning session are Gulbis vs. Chardy, Beck vs. Phau, and Marchenko vs. Hanescu. All these are second round matches. And the evening session will end the first round of the tournament. Cuevas will play against Kunitsyn, Youzhny wiil face Golubev and the peak point for the fans is going to be the Safin vs. Gasquet match.

     

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