Opening win for Youzhny
Top seed sees off Pospisil in first round of St Petersburg Open
Last Updated: September 18, 2012 8:23pm
Former champion and home favourite Mikhail Youzhny made it safely through to the second round of the St Petersburg Open with a 7-6 (7/4) 6-1 win over Vasek Pospisil.
The top seed Youzhny, who won the title in 2004 and has also twice been runner-up, battled through a tight first set and then broke the Canadian twice in the second to seal the victory.
Slovakian fifth seed Lukas Lacko was a surprise casualty, however, being beaten 6-3 6-2 by Slovenia's world number 69 Grega Zemlja, who broke his opponent's serve five times in the course of the match.
Sixth seed Yen-Hsun Lu was also eliminated after a 6-4 6-2 loss to Spain's Roberto Bautista-Agut, while another Spaniard, Daniel Gimeno-Traver, beat Florent Serra of France 7-6 (7-5) 6-2.
