St. Petersburg, Russia (Sports Network) - Second-seeded Romanian Victor Hanescu and Latvian Ernests Gulbis were first-round winners Sunday on the opening day at the $750,000 St. Petersburg Open.
Hanescu polished off Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili in a tidy 6-1, 6-2 victory while Gulbis posted a 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) win over German Florian Mayer on the indoor hardcourts at SCC Peterburgsky.
British star Andy Murray won a second straight title here a year ago by besting Kazakhstan's Andrey Golubev in the finale. This year's top seed is Russian Mikhail Youzhny, who captured his first ATP Tour win of the season earlier on Sunday in Moscow at the $1.08 million Kremlin Cup.
The 2009 St. Petersburg titlist will collect $115,150.