Murray advances St. Petersburg Open

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia -- Defending champion Andy Murray beat Viktor Troicki of Serbia 6-3, 6-3 Wednesday to advance to the second round of the St. Petersburg Open, while Nikolay Davydenko pulled out with a wrist injury.

The sixth-ranked Russian sustained the injury on Tuesday and said he was unlikely to be able to play in Paris next week.

"Even if the inflammation and pain pass, I will have no time for preparation," Davydenko said.

Davydenko said that if there was no pain by the end of the next week he would have two weeks to prepare for the season-ending Masters event in Shanghai.

Murray, fresh from winning the Madrid Masters on Sunday for his fourth title this season, broke Troicki in the fifth and eighth games of the first set. The fourth-ranked Briton had an early break in the second set and saved the only break point he faced in the eighth game.

"He (Troicki) made a lot of mistakes on his forehand today," Murray said. "I haven't seen him play so much, so I didn't really have too may tactics, but for my game I tried to serve well and change the speed of the ball a lot."

It was the eighth consecutive win for the U.S. Open finalist, including two victories in Britain's Davis Cup World Group playoffs against Austria in September.

Murray, who also won titles in Doha, Marseille and Cincinnati, next plays Ernests Gulbis of Latvia.

Earlier, Kazakhstan qualifier Andrey Golubev served 19 aces in a 6-1, 6-4 win over Olivier Rochus of Belgium while Fernando Verdasco beat wild card Karlis Lejnieks 6-1, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals.

The third-seeded Verdasco had little trouble against the 20-year-old Latvian, the lowest-ranked player in the field at No. 664 and playing in his first ATP event. The 15th-ranked Spaniard, a runner-up to Murray here last year, had two breaks in each set to close out the match in 65 minutes.

Verdasco will next face German veteran Rainer Schuettler, who defeated Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia 6-3, 6-3.

Radwanska reaches quarter-finals in Linz

LINZ, Austria -- Third-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland and eighth-seeded Alize Cornet reached the quarter-finals of the Generali Ladies on Wednesday.

Radwanska beat Kaia Kanepi of Estonia 6-2, 6-4, and Cornet rallied to defeat Maria Kirilenko of Russia 1-6, 6-2, 6-1.

The 10th-ranked Radwanska has won three WTA Tour titles this season and is competing to qualify for the season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships.

Radwanska, who had a bye in the first round, will next play either fifth-seeded former champion Nadia Petrova of Russia or Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia.

Cornet struggled with her serve in the opening set and was broken twice by Kirilenko, before holding serve throughout the last two sets.

Flavia Pennetta continued her recent run of good results by beating Agnes Szavay of Hungary 6-1, 6-2 in a first-round match.

The seventh-seeded Italian, who reached the final of the Zurich Open last week, dropped only three points on serve in the opening set and broke Szavay on six occasions.

Sybille Bammer of Austria also advanced after beating Francesca Schiavone of Italy 7-5, 6-3 to set up a second-round match against top-seeded Ana Ivanovic of Serbia.

Bammer was 5-4 down in the first set before winning five straight games. She added another break to close out the match.

Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic defeated Tamira Paszek of Austria 6-3, 6-3 to reach the second round.

Injury-hit Marcos Baghdatis loses at Swiss Indoors

BASEL, Switzerland -- Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus lost to Marcel Granollers of Spain 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 in the first round of the Swiss Indoors on Wednesday.

Baghdatis, bothered all season by injuries, needed treatment to his back during the match.

The 23-year-old has also missed matches due to a wrist injury. He was ranked as high as No. 14 in April and went into the match against Granollers ranked 43rd, but will drop even lower after the loss.

"Maybe I am going to be out of the (top) 100," Baghdatis said, adding that he expects to climb in the rankings soon again. "I did it before and I can do it again."

The 22-year-old Granollers won his only tour title at Houston in April, beating American James Blake in the final.

The fourth-seeded Blake advanced to the second round Wednesday by defeating Germany's Nicolas Kiefer 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Also in the first round, Jarkko Nieminen of Finland defeated Argentina's Eduardo Schwank 6-2, 6-4, and Belgian qualifier Kristof Vliegen beat wild-card entry Philipp Petzschner of Germany 6-2, 6-3.

In second-round matches, sixth-seeded Russian Igor Andreev needed almost three hours to overcome Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-6 (6), 6-7 (0), 7-5, while Benjamin Becker beat fellow German Andreas Beck 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Benneteau upsets Robredo at Lyon Grand Prix

LYON, France -- Julien Benneteau of France upset fifth-seeded Tommy Robredo of Spain 6-2, 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals of the Lyon Grand Prix on Wednesday.

Benneteau will next play the winner of Thursday's match between second-seeded Richard Gasquet of France and Steve Darcis of Belgium.

In other first-round matches Wedneday, No. 7 Robin Soderling of Sweden and No. 8 Paul-Henri Mathieu of France were victorious.

Soderling beat Thierry Ascione of France 6-4, 6-1, while Mathieu defeated Guillermo Canas of Argentina 6-3, 6-4. Christophe Rochus of Belgium also moved on with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Gilles Muller.

Chakvetadze loses at Fortis Championships

LUXEMBOURG -- Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic beat second-seeded Anna Chakvetadze of Russia 6-2, 6-4 Wednesday to reach the quarter-finals of the Fortis Championships.

Benesova, ranked 42nd in the world, will next play Li Na of China, who beat Mariya Koryttseva of Ukraine 7-6 (6), 6-3.

Third-seeded Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia and fourth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark also advanced to the quarter-finals. Hantuchova beat Sabine Lisicki of Germany 6-0, 6-2 and will next face Sorana Cirstea of Romania, who beat Sara Errani of Italy 6-4, 6-2.

Wozniacki defeated Peng Shuai of China 6-4, 6-4.

Former top-ranked player Amelie Mauresmo of France beat Stephanie Gehrlein of Germany 6-2, 3-6, 6-0. She will next play Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany, who beat Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 7-5, 6-4.