There are three main draw singles matches on Centre Court Monday with No. 3 seed Viktor Troicki of Serbia taking on 2004 runner-up Karol Beck of the Slovak Republic, Russian wild card Stanislav Vovk playing Bjorn Phau of Germany and Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan meeting German Rainer Schuettler, who reached the final in 2001. There are also four qualifying matches on the schedule, with two Russians involved.
     
MONDAY FIRST ROUND HEAD-TO-HEADS – In Order of Play

(3) Viktor Troicki (SRB) vs Karol Beck (SVK)    First Meeting

Troicki FastFacts:
2009 Highlights:
F: Bangkok (l Simon); SF: Zagreb (l Cilic); QF: Auckland (l Del Potro); Belgrade (l Djokovic); Hamburg (l Mathieu)
YTD W-L: 30-26
YTD Titles: 0
Career Titles: 0
Date of Birth: February 10, 1986
South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 31

• Troicki, 23, is returning to St. Petersburg for the second straight year after losing to No. 4-ranked and eventual champion Andy Murray 63 63 in the first round last season
• The No. 2 Serb (behind No. 3 Djokovic) on the ATP World Tour comes in with a 30-26  record on the season (19-14 on hard)
• Earlier this month he reached his second career ATP World Tour final in Bangkok, losing to No. 10-ranked Frenchman Gilles Simon…In the semis, he beat No. 7 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in three sets
• It was his best result since reaching the semi-finals in February in Zagreb where he lost to eventual champion Marin Cilic
• He is at No. 31 this week after reaching a career-high No. 24 on Aug. 3 on the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings
• Early in the year he advanced to the quarter-finals in Auckland in January, losing to eventual champion del Potro, and the semi-finals in Zagreb…He also captured the Belgrade Challenger (d. Hrbaty) in February in his hometown…In May he reached the quarter-finals in the ATP World Tour event in Belgrade (l. Djokovic)

Beck FastFacts:
2009 Highlights:
YTD W-L: 3-6
Career Titles: 0
Date of Birth: April 3, 1982
South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 81

• Beck, 27, is appearing in St. Petersburg for the third time (4-2 record), the first in four years when he retired in the opening round to Russian Mikhail Youzhny...The previous year he reached the final, losing to Youzhny 62 62
• The top player from the Slovak Republic at No. 81 in the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings enters with a 3-6 match record in ATP World Tour level play and 23-13 in Challengers
• He reached the second round at Wimbledon (as a lucky loser), defeating No. 27-ranked Feliciano Lopez 10-8 in the fifth set before falling in the next round to Nicolas Almagro in five sets
• The week after Wimbledon, he captured the title at the Pozoblanco, Spain Challenger, defeating Brazilian Thiago Alves in final...Following month, he reached semi-finals at Istanbul Challenger
• Then lost in first round at US Open in five sets to Argentine Maximo Gonzalez...Won a round at Kuala Lumpur at ATP World Tour tournament in late September
• In back-to-back weeks in February, he reached the final at the Heilbronn Challenger in Germany and the semi-finals at Wroclaw, Poland
• He reached a career-high No. 36 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings on Aug. 22, 2005

(WC) Stanislav Vovk (RUS) vs Bjorn Phau (GER)     First Meeting

Vovk FastFacts:
2009 Highlights:
YTD W-L: 0-2
YTD Titles: 0
Career Titles: 0
Date of Birth: February 19, 1991
South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 1216T

• Vovk, 18, is playing in his second career ATP World Tour tournament...In May, he made his debut at the ATP World Team Championship in Duesseldorf and lost to Simone Bolelli and Janko Tipsarevic in straight sets
• He's played five Futures events this year, winning one round in four of the tournaments
• Last week he lost in the second round of qualifying in Moscow (l. to Kukushkin)
• His best pro result was the quarter-finals at the Belarus #1 Futures in June 2008
• The Moscow native says the most inspirational person is Frank Lampard of Chelsea FC and if he wasn’t a tennis player would be a soccer player

Phau FastFacts:
2009 Highlights:
SF: Houston (l Odesnik); QF: Chennai (l Schuettler)
YTD W-L: 10-16
YTD Titles: 0
Career Titles: 0
Date of Birth: October 4, 1979
South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 110

• Phau, 30, is making his first appearance in St. Petersburg in three years (l. to Kunitsyn in 1st Rd.)
• He enters with a 10-16 match record on the season, 6-8 on hard courts
• His best ATP World Tour result of the year was the semi-finals in Houston on clay in April when he lost to American Wayne Odesnik… His best hard court result came in the first week of the campaign in Chennai as he reached the quarter-finals, losing to countryman Rainer Schuettler
• He reached a career-high No. 59 on June 19, 2006
• He has been coached by Klaus Langenbach (since 1997)

Denis Istomin (UZB) vs Rainer Schuettler (GER)     First Meeting

Istomin FastFacts:
2009 Highlights:
QF: Eastbourne (l Tursunov)
YTD W-L: 14-17
YTD Titles: 0
Career Titles: 0
Date of Birth: September 7, 1986
South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 101

• Istomin, 23, the top player from Uzbekistan on the ATP World Tour, is making his tournament debut and he comes in with a 14-17 match record on the season, including 7-12 on hard courts…He is also 13-10 in Challenger play
• He is playing in his sixth straight tournament in as many weeks…Eight days ago he reached the final at the Tashkent Challenger on home soil, losing to Marcos Baghdatis
• He became the first man from his country to reach the third round of a Grand Slam, at the US Open (d. Evans, N. Lapentti, l. to Cilic).
• His best ATP World Tour result of the season was the quarter-finals on grass in June (l. to eventual champion Tursunov)
• He reached a career-high ranking of No. 57 on July 27 but has dropped outside the Top 100 to No. 101 this week after failing to defend his points won with back-to-back challenger titles in August 2008
• He is coached by his mother, Klaudiya Istomina.

Schuettler FastFacts:
2009 Highlights:
SF: Chennai (W/O vs Devvarman); s-Hertogenbosch (l Becker)
YTD W-L: 16-27
YTD Titles: 0
Career Titles: 4
Date of Birth: April 25, 1976
South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 89

• Schuettler, 33, who is the oldest player in the singles draw, is making his seventh appearance in St. Petersburg (11-6 record) and his best result was a runner-up in 2001 (l. to No. 7 Safin in three sets)...He also reached the semi-finals in 2003 (l. to Sargsian) and quarter-finals in 2000 (l. to Safin) and last year (l. to Verdasco)
• Two weeks ago he qualified  at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Shanghai and reached the third round (l. to No. 4 Djokovic)
• His best results are the semifinals in Chennai in the first week of the year and in ‘s-Hertogenbosch on grass in June
• In May, he helped his country to the final at the ATP World Team Championship in Duesseldorf,  highlighted by a win over No. 7 Gilles Simon 64 64…Also posted his 300th career win that week
• In the first week of the year in Chennai he reached the semifinals but withdrew due to a left wrist injury against Indian wild card Somdev Devvarman
• Reached 2nd Rd. at Wimbledon (l. to Sela) but fell in 1st Rd. at the three other Grand Slam tourn.

OTHER FIRST ROUND HEAD-TO-HEADS – Tuesday & Wednesday

In Draw Order (not including qualifiers) –

Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) vs Andrey Golubev (KAZ)   First Meeting

Marat Safin (RUS) vs Richard Gasquet (FRA)   Safin Leads 3-2
02 ATP Masters Series Monte Carlo  Clay R32 Marat Safin 6-4 6-1
02 Lyon (France) Carpet R32 Marat Safin 6-4 7-6(5)
06 FRA v. RUS WG Qtrs (France) Carpet RR Marat Safin 7-6(4) 4-6  6-3 6-7(1) 6-1
06 Lyon (France) Carpet R32 Richard Gasquet 6-4 7-6(5)
09 Dubai (U.A.E.) Hard R32 Richard Gasquet 6-3 5-7 6-3

Potito Starace (ITA) vs Igor Andreev (RUS)   Andreev Leads 3-1
05 Valencia (Spain) Clay R16 Igor Andreev 7-5 6-1
06 Doha (Qatar) Hard R32 Potito Starace 7-5 1-6 7-5
07 Gstaad (Switzerland) Clay R16 Igor Andreev 6-3 7-5
08 Roland Garros (France) Clay R128 Igor Andreev 6-1 6-7(3) 6-1 6-4
Other Meetings:
03 Weiden CH (Germany) Clay R16 Igor Andreev 7-6(7) 7-6(6)

Marcel Granollers (ESP) vs Andrey Kuznetsov (RUS)   First Meeting

Pablo Cuevas (URU) vs Igor Kunitsyn (RUS)    First Meeting

Michail Elgin (RUS) vs Mikhail Kukushkin (KAZ)  First ATP Meeting
Other Meetings:
07 Russia F3 (Russia) Clay F Michail Elgin 7-6(5) 7-6(5)
08 Heilbronn Q (Germany) Carpet R1 Mikhail Kukushkin 6-1 1-6 6-4

Fabio Fognini (ITA) vs Illya Marchenko (UKR)    First Meeting