Tipsarevic advances in St. Petersburg

Second-seeded Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia advanced to the second round of the St. Petersburg Open with a straight-sets victory on Wednesday, while sixth-seeded Marcel Granollers of Spain was beaten.Tipsarevic defeated Olivier Rochus of Belgium 6-2, 7-5. Igor Andreev of Russia rallied to oust Granollers 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (4).Later, fifth-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia advanced to the quarterfinals, beating Julien Benneteau of France 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.Fresh from winning his second career title in Moscow on Sunday, Tipsarevic broke Rochus twice in the first set and served for the match at 5-2 up in the second. But Rochus, ranked 70th, broke him twice to level at 5-all.The 13-ranked Serb then broke for the third time and served for the match. He double-faulted on his first match point at 40-30 up before closing the match on his second one.After trading sets, Youzhny, who won the event in 2004 and was runner-up last season, broke twice in the decider for a 5-2 lead. But serving for the match, he faced a break point before wrapping up the victory on his second match point.After trading sets, the 117th-ranked Andreev saved a match point while serving at 5-4 down in the decider to force a tiebreaker.Serving at 5-4 up in the tiebreaker, Andreev landed a precise backhand down the line to earn two match points and then served a winner to close the match.Andreev said he was struggling with his first serve in the first set.With the victory, Andreev, a former top-20 player, ended a five-match losing streak on hard courts.Also in the first round, Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany rallied to beat Carlos Berlocq of Argentina 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-1, while Andreas Seppi of Italy eliminated Vasek Pospisil of Canada 7-5, 7-6 (4).