Benoit Paire had a disappointing and painful early exit from the St.Petersburg after retiring hurt in his first round encounter against Jerzy Janowicz when he was trailing 6-4, 3-0.
A player who may well have breathed a sigh of relief upon Paire’s elimination is Tommy Robredo who has been knocked out by thre Frenchman in three of his last five tournaments. The only other seed to feature in Tuesday’s action did his job and knocked out local favourite Mikhail Youzhny 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 despite not winning as many points as his opponent overall.
The world number 27 sets up a clash with Marcos Baghdatis, who won a beautiful encounter with Ernests Gulbis 6-4, 4-6, 6-3. Donskoy defeated Sidorenko and Haider-Maurer knocked out Gimeno-Traver in the other matches to take place today.
