St Petersburg - Seeded players Jeremy Chardy of France, Igor Andreev of Russia and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina won their opening matches at the St Petersburg Open in straight sets on Tuesday.
The fourth-seeded Chardy beat Romanian qualifier Petru-Alexandru Luncanu 6-2, 6-2, No. 5 Andreev defeated Potito Starace of Italy 6-4, 6-2 and No. 8 Zeballos ousted Kazakh qualifier Yuri Schukin 7-6 (9), 6-3.
But sixth-seeded Evgeny Korolev of Russia lost to qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky. The Ukrainian wasn't threatened with a break in his 6-4, 6-3 upset.
"It was not that easy to play against my young opponent," Chardy said. "My steady serve prevented him from breaking me and secured my victory."
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Andreev, who had lost in the opening round in four straight events, including the US Open in September, is looking for his fourth career title.
Wimbledon junior champion Andrey Kuznetsov of Russia scored his first victory in an ATP event, rallying to beat six-year pro Marcel Granollers of Spain 6-7 (4), 7-6 (6), 6-4.
"Midway through the second set, I found his weak point - backhand," Kuznetsov said. "So I tried to play to his left and frequently approached the net. That helped me to break."
Ukraine qualifier Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr. also advanced when Robby Ginepri of the United States retired because of a thigh injury while trailing 6-2, 1-0.
The 150th-ranked Illya Marchenko of Ukraine, who reached his first career semifinals at the Kremlin Cup last week, beat Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-4, 6-1, while Russian wild card Michail Elgin topped Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-3.
Mikhail Youzhny leads the field after winning the Kremlin Cup last week for his fifth career title. He won the event in 2004. - Sapa-AP
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