St. Petersburg: Top-seeded Fabio Fognini of Italy reached the second round of the St. Petersburg Open by beating British qualifier Dominic Inglot 6-4, 6-4 on Tuesday.
Fognini, the runner-up last year, broke Inglot early in each set and saved the only break point he faced late in the second set.
The 17th-ranked Italian is looking for his third career title. He won his first two back to back in June.
Fourth-seeded Dmitry Tursunov prevailed in the tiebreakers to eliminate Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 7-6 (3), 7-6 (3).
The 34th-ranked Russian was serving for the match at 5-2 and 5-4 in the second set but Baghdatis broke him twice to force a tiebreaker.
At 6-1 down on a tiebreaker, the Cypriot saved two match points before Tursunov sealed the victory with a backhand shot into the left corner of the court.
"I played rather simple but then started to create some knotty combinations and lost my service game," Tursunov said. "I then lost the initiative and he cheered up. I was lucky to outrun him on a tiebreaker."
Earlier, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain, who is also looking for his third career title, defeated Russian qualifier Mikhail Biryukov 6-4, 6-1.
Eighth-seeded Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan eliminated Samuel Groth 6-4, 3-6, 7-5, breaking decisively on his first match point when the Australian qualifier returned his forehand long.
