Igor Kunitsyn News

While covering the ATP World Tour stop in St. Petersburg, Russia last week, it was interesting to view the substantial rise of an Argentine by the name of Horacio Zeballos.

Top-seeded Andy Murray and reigning champion David Ferrer were among Tuesday's opening-round winners at the $2.98 million Valencia Open.

France's Gilles Simon , currently No. 14 in the year-t0-date South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings, defeated Igor Kunitsyn 6-3, 6-2 Tuesday for a second round berth at the Valencia Open 500 , an ATP World Tour 500 tournament.

Ernests Gulbis reached the semi-finals on his St. Petersburg debut in 2006. Two-time St.

Safin advances to semi-finals Russian star through to final four of St. Petersburg Open after beating Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 6-0, 7-6 ST.

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia -- Ukraine qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky defeated wild-card Andrey Kuznetsov 6-1, 6-4 Thursday in the second round of the St.

Once touted as a future world No. 1, Latvian Ernests Gulbis has been endured one of his worst seasons to date.

Marat Safin is making his final Russian tournament appearance in St. Petersburg. An action-packed schedule is set for Tuesday at the St.

Mikhail Youzhny will attempt to reach the Moscow quarter-finals for the fourth time.

American second seeds Eric Butorac and Rajeev Ram reached their third ATP World Tour semi-final of the season with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Argentine duo Martin Vassallo Arguello and Horacio Zeballos Friday at the Kremlin Cup , an ATP World Tour 250 indoor hard-court tennis tournament in Moscow.

Playing in his native Moscow for the last time, Marat Safin came up a second-round loser Thursday at the $1.08 million Kremlin Cup tennis event.

After three weeks of tennis in Asia, the ATP World Tour treks back to the European indoor season to finish off another global year on the circuit.

Russian favorite Mikhail Youzhny was among Monday's opening-round winners at the $1.08 million Kremlin Cup tennis event.

Notes: Weak, weak seeded line-up; tough openers include Davydenko vs. Safin, Andreev vs.

STROLL IN THE PARK: Lleyton Hewitt cut John Isner down to size in the first round of the Shanghai Masters on Tuesday.

Fourth-seeded Andy Roddick withdrew from his second-round match Tuesday at the $5.3 million Shanghai ATP Masters tournament because of a knee injury.

Nikolay Davydenko is chasing a spot at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. ATP World Tour No.

Igor Kunitsyn rallied from a set down on Sunday to post a 6-7 , 6-4, 6-2 victory over fellow Russian Igor Andreev at the $5.250 million Shanghai ATP Masters.

Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski won their 10th ATP World Tour title. Poles Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski boosted their chances of qualifying for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals after capturing their second ATP World Tour title of the season at the inaugural Proton Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur 2009.

KUALA LUMPUR: Top seeds Mariusz Fyrstenberg-Marcin Matkowski put themselves in a good position to qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals in London next month after bagging the Malaysian Open doubles crown yesterday.