An action-packed schedule is set for Tuesday at the St. Petersburg Open with eight first round singles matches and three first round doubles matches. Leading off Centre Court play is No. 5 seed and No. 3 Russian Igor Andreev against Potito Starace of Italy. In the second match, Russian wild card Andrey Kuznetsov looks for his first ATP World Tour match win against Spaniard Marcel Granollers. In doubles action, Andreev and countryman Mikhail Youzhny, who is coming the Kremlin Cup title on Sunday, plays the wild card duo of Pavel Chekhov and Valery Rudnev. In the evening session, a doubles match featuring Igor Kunitsyn and Marat Safin against Pablo Cuevas and Horacio Zeballos is first up followed by qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine against Russian No. 6 seed Evgeny Korolev.
     
TUESDAY FIRST ROUND HEAD-TO-HEADS – In Order of Play by Court

Centre Court

Potito Starace (ITA) vs (5) 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)

Starace FastFacts:
2009 Highlights:
QF: Munich (l Brands)
YTD W-L: 16-23
YTD Titles: 0
Career Titles: 0
Date of Birth: July 14, 1981
South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 68

• Starace, 28, is making his fourth straight appearance in St. Petersburg (4-3 record) and he reached the quarter-finals in 2006-07
• Last week in Moscow he lost in the second round to eventual champion Mikhail Youzhny 61 61
• The veteran Italian has a 16-23 match record on the season (3-8 on hard) with his best result the quarter-finals in Munich in May (l. to Brands)
• Has played well in Challengers (20-6 record), winning the title in Turin in May and reaching finals in Lugano in June, San Marino in August and Napoli three weeks ago 

Andreev FastFacts:
2009 Highlights:
SF: Casablanca (l Ferrero); Gstaad (l Bellucci); New Haven (l Verdasco); QF: Dubai (l Ferrer)
YTD W-L: 27-30
YTD Titles: 0
Career Titles: 3
Date of Birth: July 14, 1983
South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 38

• Andreev, 26, is playing in St. Petersburg for the first time in five years and comes in with a 1-2 record…He reached the second round in his debut in 2003
• The No. 3 Russian (behind No. 6 Davydenko, No. 25 Youzhny) comes in with a 27-30 match record on the year (14-18 on hard courts)…He is 1-5 indoors…Last week in Moscow he lost to Ginepri in 1st Rd.
• His best results are the semi-finals in Casablanca (l. to Ferrero) and Gstaad (l. to Bellucci) on clay and in New Haven (l. to Verdasco) on hard courts in August…He lost to the eventual champion in all three
• He is ranked No. 38 and he’s trying to finish in the Top 50 for the third straight year and fifth in last six

 

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

Granollers FastFacts:
2009 Highlights:
SF: Chennai (l Cilic)
YTD W-L: 16-23
YTD Titles: 0
Career Titles: 1
Date of Birth: April 12, 1986
South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 79

• Granollers, 23, is making his tournament debut and on Sunday he captured the doubles title at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow (w/Cuevas)
• The Spaniard enters with a 16-23 match record on the season, including 6-7 on hard courts…He is also 11-7 in Challenger tournaments, reaching the semi-finals in Segovia and the quarter-finals in Vigo (both in Spain) prior to the US Open
• He comes in ranked No. 79 after reaching a career-high No. 44 earlier this year on Feb. 16
• His best result of the season came in the first week of the year in Chennai where he lost to eventual champion Marin Cilic in the semi-finals
• Last year he captured his first ATP World Tour title in just his eighth tournament in Houston, defeating American James Blake in three sets in the final

Kuznetsov FastFacts:
2009 Highlights:
YTD W-L: 0-1
YTD Titles: 0
Career Titles: 0
Date of Birth: February 22, 1991
South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 414

• Kuznetsov, 18, is playing in his second career ATP World Tour tournament...Last week in Moscow, he made his main draw debut and lost in the first round to veteran Frenchman Fabrice Santoro in three sets
• The young Russian has jumped from No. 769 at the end of last year to No. 414 this week with success in Futures events…He has won three titles, in Italy #14 in June, Russia #4 in August and Kazakhstan #5 three weeks ago...Also a runner-up at Egypt #4 in March
• He played in three Italian Challenger tournaments, losing in the first round in each
• In July he captured the junior Wimbledon title, defeating American Jordan Cox in three sets...In February, he won a junior title in Tunisia without dropping a set...This week he is No. 8 in the junior world rankings 
• He was born in Tula, Russia, and now resides in Balashikha…Coached by his father, Alexander

(Q) Sergiy Stakhovsky (UKR) vs (6) Evgeny Korolev (RUS) First ATP Meeting
Other Meetings:
09 Rotterdam Q (The Netherlands) Hard R2 Evgeny Korolev 6-3 4-6  7-6(6)
09 Mons CH (Belgium) Hard QF Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-3 6-4

Stakhovsky FastFacts:
2009 Highlights:
QF: Doha (l Murray); Zagreb (l Troicki); Moscow (l Youzhny)
YTD W-L: 11-14
YTD Titles: 0
Career Titles: 1
Date of Birth: January 6, 1986
South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 93

• Stakhovsky, 23,  the top player from Ukraine at No. 93 in the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings, qualified for the second straight week...He is making his third tournament appearance, having lost in the second round in 2005 and first round last year
• In Moscow last week he reached his third ATP World Tour quarter-final of the season, falling to eventual champion Mikhail Youzhny
• He started the year by reaching the quarter-finals in Doha with wins over C. Rochus and Peya before falling to eventual champion and World No. 4 Andy Murray...Then advanced to the quarter-finals at Zagreb in February with wins over Hrbaty and Karlovic before bowing out to Troicki
• He has an 11-14 record in ATP World Tour level play this season and 15-12 in Challenger action, reaching the final in Mons earlier this month (l. Tipsarevic)
• He captured his only ATP World Tour title at Zagreb in 2008 (d. Ljubicic) to become first lucky loser on tour to capture a title since Christian Miniussi in 1991…He achieved a career-high ranking of No. 74 on Nov. 17, 2008

Korolev FastFacts:
2009 Highlights:
F: Delray Beach (l Fish); SF: Houston (l Hewitt); QF: Metz (l Kohlschreiber); Bangkok (l Simon); Moscow (l Marchenko)
YTD W-L: 16-17
YTD Titles: 0
Career Titles: 0
Date of Birth: February 14, 1988
South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 50

• Korolev, 21, is looking for his first main draw win in St. Petersburg after first round losses the past three years
• The young Russian is coming off his fifth ATP World Tour quarter-final (or better) of the season last week in Moscow where he lost to qualifier Illya Marchenko in three sets
• He enters with a 16-17 match record (12-8 on hard) on the year and he is ranked a career-high No. 50 this week
• He has put together a solid six-week stretch following a first round exit at the U.S. Open…He reached the quarter-finals at the Genova Challenger, won the title at the Szczecin Challenger (d. Serra) and advanced to the quarter-finals in ATP World Tour stops in Metz (l. to Kohlschreiber) and Bangkok (l. to Simon)…He also was a quarter-finalist at the Mons Challenger three weeks ago
• In February, the young Russian reached his first ATP World Tour final in Delray Beach (as a qualifier), losing to American Mardy Fish...Afterwards, moved from No. 105 to No. 79
• In April, advanced to semi-finals on clay in Houston (l. to eventual champion Hewitt)

RUSSIANS IN TOP 100 SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS 2009 ATP RANKINGS

No. 6 Nikolay Davydenko
No. 25 Mikhail Youzhny
No. 38 Igor Andreev
No. 50 Evgeny Korolev
No. 58 Dmitry Tursunov
No. 77 Marat Safin

Court 1

(Q) Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr. (UKR) vs Robby Ginepri (USA)  First Meeting

Dolgopolov Jr. FastFacts:
2009 Highlights:
YTD W-L: 0-0
Career Titles: 0
Date of Birth: November 7, 1988
South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 142

Ginepri FastFacts:
2009 Highlights:
W: Indianapolis (d Querrey); QF: Moscow (l Tipsarevic)
YTD W-L: 13-20
YTD Titles: 1
Career Titles: 3
Date of Birth: October 7, 1982
South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 88

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

Fognini FastFacts:
2009 Highlights:
SF: Stuttgart (l Hanescu); QF: Bucharest (l Montanes)
YTD W-L: 20-25
YTD Titles: 0
Career Titles: 0
Date of Birth: May 24, 1987
South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 56

Marchenko FastFacts:
2009 Highlights:
SF: Moscow (l Tipsarevic)
YTD W-L: 4-4
YTD Titles: 0
Career Titles: 0
Date of Birth: September 8, 1987
South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 150

(Q) Petru-Alexandru Luncanu (ROU) vs (4) Jeremy Chardy (FRA)   First Meeting

Luncanu FastFacts:
2009 Highlights:
YTD W-L: 0-1
YTD Titles: 0
Career Titles: 0
Date of Birth: May 7, 1989
South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 322

Chardy FastFacts:
2009 Highlights:
W: Stuttgart (d Hanescu); F: Johannesburg (l Tsonga); SF: Delray Beach (l Fish); Munich (l Berdych); QF: Sydney (l Gasquet); s-Hertogenbosch (l Schuettler); Gstaad (l Andreev)
YTD W-L: 33-25
YTD Titles: 1
Career Titles: 1
Date of Birth: February 12, 1987
South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 32

(WC) Michail Elgin (RUS) vs (SE) 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

Elgin FastFacts:
2009 Highlights:
YTD W-L: 0-0
Career Titles: 0
Date of Birth: October 14, 1981
South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 353

Kukushkin FastFacts:
2009 Highlights:
SF: Moscow (l Youzhny)
YTD W-L: 6-5
Career Titles: 0
Date of Birth: December 26, 1987
South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking: 143

Court 2
(8) Horacio Zeballos (ARG) vs (Q) Yuri Schukin (KAZ)   First Meeting