TENNIS WORLD

Mathieu Advances; Youzhny Dealt First Round Exit


Fourth seed Paul-Henri Mathieu (pictured) improved his ATP Kremlin Cup tournament record to 13-3 after reaching the second round with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky in Moscow on Wednesday.
The Frenchman, who converted three of 12 break point chances in the 1 hr., 26 min., encounter, captured the title on his debut in 2002 (d. Schalken) and finished runner-up on his fourth visit last year (l. to Davydenko). In the second round he will face Beijing finalist Dudi Sela.

Currently No. 23 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings, Mathieu has now secured his 30th match win of the season (30-24 record) and entered having reached his seventh ATP final in Metz last week (l. to Tursunov).
Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili defeated his third-seeded compatriot Mikhail Youzhny 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(1) to hand the Moscow native his sixth first round defeat at the ATP Kremlin Cup.
World No. 66 Gabashvili, who also resides in Moscow, served nine aces and won just two points more than Youzhny in the 2 hr., 43 min., encounter. The victory leveled their head-to-head at 1-1 after Youzhny had won their first clash at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami last year.
The 26-year-old Youzhny, currently No. 22 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings, dropped to a 27-19 match record for the season. He captured his fourth ATP title in Chennai (d. Nadal) at the start of the season and has made three quarterfinal exits at the Australian Open (l. to Tsonga), Marseille (l. to Baghdatis) and Gstaad (l. to Garcia-Lopez).
Gabashvili is a four-time ATP quarterfinalist in 2008 at Rotterdam (l. to Simon), Zagreb (l. to Ljubicic), Amersfoort (l. to Gicquel) and Bucharest (l Gasquet) and improved to 13-11 on the season. He will look to reach the quarterfinals in Moscow for the first time when he challenges Youzhny’s doubles partner this week, Mischa Zverev, in the second round.
Zverev progressed with a 6-3, 7-6(7) victory over compatriot Denis Gremelmayr. The Moscow-born German citizin, who partnered Youzhny to the Tokyo doubles title last week, is through to the second round for the first time on his third visit.
The 21-year-old has compiled a 14-21 match record on the season, highlighted by reaching three quarterfinals at Rotterdam (l. to Karlovic), Umag (l. to Verdasco) and New Haven (l. to Verdasco).
With the withdrawal of Russian No. 5 seed Dmitry Tursunov due to a right shoulder injury, his doubles partner whom he had been due to face, Igor Kunitsyn, instead found himself up against lucky loser Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan. The World No. 71 took full advantage, booking a second round spot with a 6-1, 4-6, 6-1 victory. He next will face American Robby Ginepri.








Info and photo from ATP