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St Petersburg - Second-seeded Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia advanced to the second round of the St Petersburg Open with a straight-sets victory on Wednesday, while sixth-seeded Marcel Granollers of Spain was beaten.
Tipsarevic beat Olivier Rochus of Belgium 6-2, 7-5. Igor Andreev of Russia rallied to oust Granollers 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (4).
Fresh from winning his second career title in Moscow on Sunday, Tipsarevic broke Rochus twice in the first set and served for the match at 5-2 up in the second. But Rochus, ranked 70th, broke him twice to level at 5-all.
The 13-ranked Serb then broke for the third time and served for the match. He double-faulted on his first match point at 40-30 up before closing the match on his second one.
After trading sets, the 117th-ranked Andreev saved a match point while serving at 5-4 down in the decider to force a tie-breaker.
Serving at 5-4 up in the tie-breaker, Andreev landed a precise backhand down the line to earn two match points and then served a winner to close the match.
Andreev said he was struggling with his first serve in the first set.
"But it could have gone either way in the tie-breaker," said Andreev, who lost in a third-set tie-breaker in the first round at the Kremlin Cup last week. "Last week I lost (in a tie-breaker). I decided to play more aggressively and risk today and I won."
With the victory, Andreev, a former top-20 player, ended a five-match losing streak on hard courts.
"It was a very close match," Granollers said. "We both played good but in the tie-breaker Igor (Andreev) was better than me. When you are in the tie-breaker, the match can be decided by two points."
Also in the first round, Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany rallied to beat Carlos Berlocq of Argentina 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-1, while Andreas Seppi of Italy eliminated Vasek Pospisil of Canada 7-5, 7-6 (4).
Results on Wednesday from the St Petersburg Open (seedings in parentheses):
First Round
Igor Andreev, Russia, def. Marcel Granollers (6), Spain, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (4).
Philipp Kohlschreiber, Germany, def. Carlos Berlocq, Argentina, 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-1.
Andreas Seppi, Italy, def. Vasek Pospisil, Canada, 7-5, 7-6 (4).
Janko Tipsarevic (2), Serbia, def. Olivier Rochus, Belgium, 6-2, 7-5.
Second Round
Mikhail Youzhny (5), Russia, def. Julien Benneteau, France, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.
Adrian Mannarino, France, def. Lukas Rosol, Czech Republic, 6-2, 7-6 (5).
