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Fognini among St. Petersburg first-round winners

Fabio Fognini, shown in a match at the 2013 French Open, claimed a first-round win Tuesday at the St. Petersburg Open. Fognini was the runner-up in the tournament last year. UPI/David Silpa
Fabio Fognini, shown in a match at the 2013 French Open, claimed a first-round win Tuesday at the St. Petersburg Open. Fognini was the runner-up in the tournament last year. UPI/David Silpa | License Photo

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- Fabio Fognini, seeded first in 2013 after a runner-up finish in the tournament last year, posted a straight-set win Tuesday at the St. Petersburg Open.

Fognini finished second to Martin Klizan in the 2012 St. Petersburg Open. He had a run of three finals in three weeks -- winning two titles -- in July. On Tuesday he opened his section of play with a 6-4, 6-4 first-round decision over Dominic Inglot.

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Fognini dropped just 15 points over 10 games serving and saved the only break point he faced against Inglot.

Fourth-seeded Dmitry Tursunov took two tiebreakers in getting past Marcos Baghdatis 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-3) in a 2-hour-long match. Neither player dropped serve in the first set and both had two breaks in the second before Tursunov survived both tiebreakers.

No. 8-seeded Denis Istomin came out ahead of a 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 score over Samuel Groth by finishing off both his break opportunities in the third set.

Also Tuesday, Jurgen Zopp defeated Daniel Gimeno-Traver 6-1, 3-6, 6-3; Guillermo Garcia-Lopez advanced over Mikhail Biryukov 6-4, 6-1; and Evgeny Donskoy beat Adrian Mannarino 6-1, 6-4.

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