Marat Safin marked his final appearance in the Kremlin Cup with a shock first-round win over top seed Nikolay Davydenko.
Top seed tumbles in opening round after winning in Shanghai last week
Marat Safin marked his final appearance in the Kremlin Cup with a shock first-round win over top seed Nikolay Davydenko.
Safin, who will retire from the ATP Tour at the end of the year, battled back from a set down against the defending champion to triumph 4-6 6-4 6-2.
The 29-year-old - beaten finalist in his home town in 2008 - produced 10 aces to reach the second round in just under two hours on court.
Having been victorious in the Shanghai Masters last week, Davydenko faded badly after taking the first set thanks to a single break of serve.
The world number six lost his own serve just once in the second to surrender his advantage and then double-faulted at 5-2 down in the third to hand his opponent his first match point.
Safin, though, didn't wrap up the win until the third time of asking to end his compatriot's hopes of a fourth title on home soil.
Nervous
"At this stage any match could be my last," he said afterwards.
"Actually I was a bit nervous facing Nikolay because he's been in such a great form lately but I served and returned well and capitalised on his mistakes."
In other first round ties, Evgeny Korolev defeated fellow Russian Igor Kunitsyn 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 while Illya Marchenko progressed when Denis Istomin was forced to withdraw due to a throat infection when 4-1 down in the third set.
Russian Mikhail Youzhny, seeded third, thrashed Italian Potito Starace 6-1 6-1 in Wednesday's second round action.
Fifth seed Pablo Cuevas is also through to the third round, though he had a tougher match against Teimuraz Gabashvili, eventually coming out by a 3-6 6-1 6-4 scoreline.
Fabrice Santoro was not so fortunate, though, the seventh seed crashing out in straight sets to qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine.
