MOSCOW, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Defending champion Nikolay Davydenko earned a quarterfinals spot with a straight-set victory Thursday in the $1 million Kremlin Cup tennis tournament in Moscow.
Davydenko, seeded first this week and appearing solid in a 6-4, 6-4 second-round win over Nicolas Lapentti, won the 2006 Kremlin Cup by beating Marat Safin in the final. There will be no rematch in 2007, however, as Safin was among several upset victims in Thursday's second-round play.
Instead, Davydenko was given a quarterfinal pairing against Igor Andreev, who ousted the fifth-seeded Safin 6-4, 6-4. It is Davydenko's 11th quarterfinal of the year.
Also eliminated were second-seeded Mikhail Youzhny, who was topped by Michael Berrer 7-5, 6-4; and third-seeded Andy Murray, who lost 6-4, 7-5 to Janko Tipsarevic.
In addition to the Davydenko-Andreev match Friday, the quarterfinals have fourth-seeded Paul-Henri Mathieu playing Florent Serra, eighth-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber meeting Berrer and Tipsarevic going against Radek Stepanek.
