Tipsarevic Begins Campaign; Youzhny Into Quarter-finals

© St. Petersburg OpenMikhail Youzhny improves to a 26-8 match record in St. Petersburg.

Second seed Janko Tipsarevic, one of the contenders for three remaining singles berths at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, cruised past Belgium's Olivier Rochus 6-2, 7-5 on Wednesday for a place in the St. Petersburg Open second round.

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Tipsarevic, who next faces Germany's Michael Berrer, first served for the match at 5-2 but was broken on Rochus' third break point chance. He was broken for a second time to 30 at 5-4, before winning two straight games to close out the match on a tie-break in just over 90 minutes.

The 27-year-old Serbian hit 10 aces and converted all five of his break point opportunities for his 49th match win of 2011. Tipsarevic, who is coming off his second ATP World Tour title (the Kremlin Cup in Moscow) in four weeks, is second on the ATP World Tour this year in hard court match wins with 37, trailing his compatriot Novak Djokovic (40-2).

Russian Igor Andreev delighted local support by battling past sixth seed Marcel Granollers of Spain 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(4) in two hours and 50 minutes. World No. 117 Andreev recovered from a 1-3 deficit in the tie-break and will next face Italian Andreas Seppi, who was a 7-5, 7-6(4) winner over Canadian qualifier Vasek Pospisil in two hours.

German Philipp Kohlschreiber beat Carlos Berlocq of Argentina for the second time in two weeks 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-1 in two hours and 15 minutes, converting six of seven break point opportunities. The pair met at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow last week. Kohlschreiber goes onto meet seventh-seeded American Alex Bogomolov Jr.

Fifth seed Mikhail Youzhny improved to a 4-1 record against Frenchman Julien Benneteau, taking two hours and six minutes to clinch a 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 victory in second-round action. Youzhny's first win over Benneteau had come at this tournament en route to the title seven years ago; he conceded just one game in that quarter-final meeting.

Youzhny, who also finished as the runner-up in 2002 and '10, now has a 26-8 mark at this tournament. The Russian next plays unseeded Frenchman Adrian Mannarino, who defeated Czech Lukas Rosol 6-2, 7-6(5). Mannarino had upset top seed Gilles Simon in the first round, while Rosol had ousted Ernests Gulbis.

Prior to this week, the 86th-ranked Mannarino had not won a tour-level match since June at Wimbledon. He is through to his fourth ATP World Tour quarter-final of the season.