TENNIS WORLD

Former ATP World No. 1 Marat Safin claimed his 400th career win Tuesday at his hometown event, the ATP Kremlin Cup in Moscow. Safin, 28, converted just two of 10 break point opportunities against Israeli Noam Okun, but it was enough to earn a 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-4 win in 2 hr., 5 min.
The match had a bizarre end when Safin broke Okun to take the match 6-4 in the third. However, Safin mistakenly thought it was 6-5, and a change over. So after securing the break, the Russian went to his chair and began to towel off. Eventually chair umpire Carlos Bernardes leaned over and informed Safin the match was over. The somewhat embarrassed Safin quickly went to the net and shared a laugh with Okun while they shook hands.
Safin has not won an ATP title since claiming a second Grand Slam crown at the Australian Open in January 2005. He last reached a final two years ago, here at the Kremlin Cup. Safin failed to win consecutive matches through the first four months of the season but turned things around at Wimbledon, where he reached the semifinals (l. Federer).
ATP World No. 5 Nikolay Davydenko (pictured) strengthened his bid for one of the four remaining berths at Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over Frenchman Florent Serra in the first round at the ATP Kremlin Cup in Moscow on Tuesday.
The 27-year-old, who is currently No. 5 in the ATP 2008 Race, is bidding for his third straight title, and fourth overall, in Moscow. The Volgograd resident has a 16-2 tournament record after clinching the title for the first time in 2004 (d. Rusedski) before winning back-to-back trophies in 2006 (d. Safin) and last year (d. Mathieu).
The right-hander, who improved to a 48-16 match record, has titled three times this season at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami (d. Nadal), Poertschach (d. Monaco) and Warsaw (d. Robredo); he also reached the final at Estoril (ret. vs. Federer). He will face Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the second round.
Serbian Janko Tipsarevic was made to work hard for his second round place, edging out Russian qualifier Alexandre Kudryavtsev 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(6).
The eighth seed faced 19 aces from Kudryavtsev and both players secured one break of serve, but Tipsarevic was able to win two points more than his 229th-ranked opponent in the 2 hr., 5 min., encounter to secure victory.
World No. 41 Tipsarevic, who extended Roger Federer to 10-8 in the fifth set of their Australian Open third round clash in January, improved to a 24-18 match record on the season, highlighted by three quarterfinal showings at Zagreb (l. to Stakhovsky), the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami (l. to Davydenko) and last week in Metz (l. to Mathieu).
The 24-year-old is making his third appearance in Moscow, where he has enjoyed success on his past two visits, reaching the quarterfinals on his 2006 debut (l. to Safin) before going one round better a year later to reach the semifinals (l. to Davydenko).
In the second round he will face compatriot Viktor Troicki, who is enjoying a career-high South African Airways ATP Ranking of No. 60 after reaching the Tokyo quarterfinals last week (l. to Roddick). The Washington runner-up defeated Russian wild card Evgeny Donskoy 6-1, 6-3 to improve to a 20-17 match record for the season.
Denis Istomin, a qualifier from Uzbekistan, upset No. 6 seed Michael Llodra, toppling the Frenchman 7-6(2), 6-3 in 1 hr., 25 min., to improve to a 6-1 match record for the season.
The 22-year-old, who ranked a career-high No. 120 last week (now No. 121), has enjoyed most of his success this season on the ATP Challenger Circuit, where he has titled twice at Bukhara and Karshi and reached the finals at a further two events. It is his first win in Moscow after losing first round on his debut in 2006 (l. to Korolev). He next will face another Frenchman, Fabrice Santoro.
Elsewhere, there were mixed fortunes for Israeli players in first round action. Beijing finalist Dudi Sela secured his passage with a hard fought 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 win over Gstaad titlist Victor Hanescu of Romania, while Frenchman Julien Benneteau ousted qualifier Harel Levy 6-4, 6-3.
American Robby Ginepri celebrated his 26th birthday with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Jiri Vanek. Making his debut in Moscow, Ginepri improved to a 22-16 match record for the season, highlighted by three consecutive semifinal appearances at Delray Beach (l. to Blake), San Jose (l. to Stepanek), Las Vegas (l. to Anderson).
“It's great to get off to a good start here this week," said Ginepri. "I haven't played since the US Open, so I wasn't really sure where my game was going to be, but I'm happy with the way I played. It's a good start, and hopefully I can keep it going. It's definitely nice to get the win on my birthday, I think I was 0-2 before on my birthday.”

Info and photo from ATP