Hanescu into St Petersburg quarterfinals

SECOND-SEEDED Victor Hanescu of Romania beat Illya Marchenko of Ukraine 6-3, 6-4 yesterday in the second round of the St Petersburg Open in Russia.

Hanescu, a semifinalist last year, served seven aces to reach his first quarterfinal in 11 events since July.

Ernests Gulbis of Latvia upset fourth-seeded Jeremy Chardy of France 7-6 (7), 6-3.

"I won 28 points on my first serve in the first set. He played well and I was lucky to win several key points on the tiebreaker," said Gulbis, who won five consecutive games in the second set.

Eighth-seeded Horacio Zeballos of Argentina also progressed, ousting Ukrainian qualifier Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr 6-3, 6-4.

Earlier, Karol Beck of Slovakia retired because of flu while trailing Bjorn Phau of Germany 4-6, 1-2.

In first-round action, Russia's Igor Kunitsyn upset seventh-seeded Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay 6-4, 6-3.

In Vienna, Philipp Kohlschreiber reached his fifth ATP quarterfinal of the season when Victor Crivoi of Romania quit with a shoulder injury while trailing 2-6, 0-3 at the BA Trophy yesterday.

The fourth-seeded German conceded only five points on serve and broke Crivoi four times. Kohlschreiber will next play either fifth-seeded Nicolas Almagro of Spain or Australian Wayne Odesnik.

In the first round, Janko Tipsarevic defeated eighth-seeded John Isner of the United States 7-6 (4), 6-4. The Serb, who reached his first career final in Moscow last week, managed only four points on Isner's serve in the opening set before winning the tiebreaker.

Tipsarevic used his fifth break point in the second to close out the match with a backhand winner.

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