Tennis
Fognini advances at St. Petersburg Open
Tennis

Fognini advances at St. Petersburg Open

Published Sep. 17, 2013 1:00 a.m. ET

Top-seeded Fabio Fognini of Italy reached the second round of the St. Petersburg Open by beating British qualifier Dominic Inglot 6-4, 6-4 on Tuesday.

Fognini, the runner-up last year, broke Inglot early in each set and saved the only break point he faced late in the second set.

The 17th-ranked Italian is looking for his third career title. He won twice in June.

Fourth-seeded Dmitry Tursunov prevailed in two tiebreakers to edge Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 7-6 (3), 7-6 (3).

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The 34th-ranked Russian was serving for the match at 5-2 and 5-4 in the second set, but Baghdatis broke him twice to force a tiebreaker.

At 6-1 down on a tiebreaker, the Cypriot saved two match points before Tursunov sealed the victory with a backhand shot into the left corner of the court.

"I played rather simple, but then started to create some knotty combinations and lost my service game," Tursunov said. "I then lost the initiative, and he cheered up. I was lucky to outrun him on a tiebreaker."

Earlier, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain defeated Russian qualifier Mikhail Biryukov 6-4, 6-1.

Eighth-seeded Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan stopped Samuel Groth 6-4, 3-6, 7-5, breaking on his first match point when the Australian qualifier returned his forehand long.

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