Top seed Dominic Thiem made a crisp start to his campaign in St. Petersburg on Thursday, defeating Jan-Lennard Struff 7-6, 6-4 and leading seven seeded players into the final eight.
Also victors Thursday were No. 3 seed Marco Cecchinato, No. 6 Damir Dzumhur, No. 7 Denis Shapovalov and No. 8 Daniil Medvedev. No. 5 seed Roberto Bautista Agut won the biggest match of the day, defeating Mikhail Youzhny in the Russian’s final professional match.
Thiem, the last player to play his first match, was solid if imperfect in his 96-minute victory. He was broken in the opening game and put just 56 percent of first serves in play, but nevertheless did enough to secure the win. He took firm command with a short backhand midway through the tiebreak, then secured the set on Struff’s racket by returning a tricky body serve for a sublime, first-stroke backhand winner.
At 1-1 in the second set, he lunged forward on a short ball and flicked a forehand past Struff for the lone break in the set. The Austrian, No. 8 in the world, faced break points later in the set and fell behind 0-30 when serving out the match, but eventually converted his second match point.
He won just two more total points than Struff, but faced only four break points and did not lose his serve after the opening game. His road becomes tougher against Medvedev, the only Russian to make the last eight, who swiftly disposed of Mikhail Kukushkin, 6-3, 6-4 on Thursday.
The 22-year-old broke Kukushkin late in each set, overcoming second serve struggles and seven double faults with strong play on break points — both those he faced and those he earned. Dzumhur, the defending champion in St. Petersburg, and Cecchinato also advanced in straight sets.
Shapovalov, who will play Martin Klizan, the lone unseeded player remaining, faced a tougher road. He defeated Matteo Berrettini 7-6, 4-6, 6-0 in two hours even, after facing set point in the opening tiebreak and losing his serve at love to hand the Italian the second set.
Nevertheless, the 19-year-old rebounded to win nearly three-quarters of points in the deciding set, including all 12 on serve. The Canadian did not convert a break point until the final frame, where he then did so three times in 20 minutes.
