Hanescu advances into St. Petersburg quarterfinals

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) -Second-seeded Victor Hanescu of Romania beat Illya Marchenko of Ukraine 6-3, 6-4 Wednesday in the second round of the St. Petersburg Open.

Hanescu, a semifinalist last year, served seven aces to reach his first quarterfinal in 11 events since July.

Ernests Gulbis of Latvia upset fourth-seeded Jeremy Chardy of France 7-6 (7), 6-3 to secure a spot at the Australian Open.

"I won 28 points on my first serve in the first set. He played well and I was lucky to win several key points on the tiebreaker," said Gulbis, who won five consecutive games in the second set.

Eighth-seeded Horacio Zeballos of Argentina also progressed, ousting Ukrainian qualifier Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr. 6-3, 6-4.

Earlier, Karol Beck of Slovakia retired because of flu while trailing Bjorn Phau of Germany 6-4, 2-1.

In first-round action, Russia's Igor Kunitsyn upset seventh-seeded Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay 6-4, 6-3.

In later first-round matches, top-seeded Mikhail Youzhny, fresh from the Kremlin Cup last week for his fifth career title, was scheduled to play Andrey Golubev. Two-time champion Marat Safin, who is playing his final season on the ATP circuit, was to face Richard Gasquet of France.