Fourth-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia and American Alex Bogomolov Jr, seeded seventh, advanced to the second round of the St Petersburg Open with straight-sets victories on Tuesday, while defending champion Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan made an early exit.
Bogomolov beat Igor Kunitsyn of Russia 6-3, 6-1, while Cilic ousted Ukrainian qualifier Sergei Bubka 6-4, 7-6 (1).
Later, eighth-seeded Dmitry Tursunov beat fellow Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili 7-5, 6-3.
Bogomolov — who was making his debut at a second consecutive event in Russia after reaching the quarter-finals at the Kremlin Cup last week — broke Kunitsyn twice in the first set and three times in the second to win in 1 hour and 6 minutes.
“I know Kunitsyn and the way he plays perfectly,” Bogomolov said. “It was important to neutralize his backhand. So, I served hard and returned with maximum concentration.”
Kukushkin, who was looking for his second title, was beaten by Michael Berrer of Germany 6-1, 4-6, 6-4. Julien Benneteau of France also advanced with a straight-sets victory over Pere Riba of Spain, 6-2, 6-1.
The 22nd-ranked Cilic is looking for his first title of the season. Cilic broke in the ninth game of the first set, but Bubka saved five break points in the 11th game of the second set before the Croat prevailed in the tiebreaker to win on his first match point.
“It was really good for me to go through this match today,” said Cilic, who reached the semi-finals at this event four years ago. “Bubka was serving really good in some moments and especially in the second set on five-all I had five break points and he served three aces and one service winner, so, it was really tough.”
Tursunov, who won his seventh career title in the Netherlands in June, rallied from 4-1 down to win the first set. He jumped to a 3-1 lead after trading breaks early in the second set and broke again in the ninth game to wrap up the match on his first match point.
Serbian qualifier Dusan Lajovic advanced to the second round with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Jeremy Chardy of France.
VIENNA OPEN
REUTERS, VIENNA
Former world No. 1 Thomas Muster drew his comeback to a close on Tuesday, the 44-year-old losing to Austrian teenager Dominic Thiem 6-2, 6-3 in front of an adoring home crowd at the Vienna Open in a match dubbed the “generation duel.”
The left-handed Muster, whose glittering career peaked with his 1995 French Open victory and contained 44 singles titles, returned to tennis in June last year by playing smaller Challenger Tour events.
Austrian Muster, who was clad in red, said the first-round match with Thiem was his farewell as his family was in no mood “to constantly pack suitcases.”
Ranked 1,078th and featuring in his 896th match on the ATP circuit, the veteran was powerless to stop the 18-year-old Thiem, ranked more than 800 places lower.
Playing the biggest game of his short career in front of a 9,000 crowd, Thiem quickly had Muster racing across the court and needed only 30 minutes to wrap up the first set.
Muster, runner-up at this event in 1988, five years before Thiem was born, briefly put up a fight early in the second set.
He went 3-1 up and showed glimpses of his glory days and his heavy top-spin forehand.
The gifted youngster, however, reeled him back in and won a long rally to level at 3-3.
Muster then sunk a backhand into the net on the first match point, but the result seemed to matter less as he clapped and waved, soaking up the crowd’s standing ovation on an emotional evening.
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