Murray advances at St. Petersburg

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Defending champion Andy Murray won his first-round match Wednesday 6-3, 6-3 against Viktor Troicki at the St. Petersburg Open tennis tournament in Russia.

The top-seeded Murray, from Dunblane, Scotland, easily continued the momentum he built in winning last week's Madrid Masters by beating Serbian Viktor Troicki 6-3, 6-3.

In the last two years on the indoor carpet at SCC Peterburgsky, Murray has won six straight matches.

"I haven't seen (Troicki) play much, so I didn't really have too many tactics," Murray said, "but I tried to serve well and change the speed of the ball a lot."

Two-time St. Petersburg winner Marat Safin, the eighth seed, delighted a native crowd with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky; third-seeded Fernando Verdasco of Spain trounced Latvia's Karlis Lejnieks 6-1, 6-3; German Rainer Schuettler belted Slovakia's Dominik Hrbaty 6-3, 6-3; and Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan topped Belgian Olivier Rochus 6-1, 6-4.