Youzhny wins St. Petersburg opener

The 2004 St. Petersburg champion, also last week's winner at Moscow's Kremlin Cup, was joined in Wednesday's winner's circle by retiring compatriot Marat Safin, a two-time St. Petersburg champion; No. 2 Victor Hanescu of Romania, a 6-3 6-4 second-round winner over Ukraine's Illya Marchenko; Latvia's Ernests Gulbis, who downed No. 4 seed Jeremy Chardy of France 7-6 (9-7), 6-3; No. 8 Horacio Zeballos of Argentina, a 6-3, 6-1 winner over Ukraine's Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr.; and Russian Igor Kunitsyn, who topped seventh-seeded Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay 6-4, 6-3.

Elsewhere, Germany's Bjorn Phau beat Slovakian Karol Beck 6-4, 2-1, when Beck retired because of a respiratory illness.

The eventual St. Petersburg champion will earn a $115,150 winner's check.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International.