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St. Petersburg Open – St. Petersburg, Russia

Milos Raonic, Stan Wawrinka, Tomas Berdych, Viktor Troicki, Alexander Zverev and more stars attend the St. Petersburg Open’s swanky soiree at The Four Seasons Hotel on Monday night in St. Petersburg. 

Second and third seeds Raonic and Berdych took time away from the tournament to visit the iconic St. Isaac’s Cathedral. The duo were joined by Raonic’s girlfriend Danielle Knudson to take a tour of one of the city’s most picturesque landmarks, as well as climb up a private staircase to the Balustrade where 12 bronze angels overlook St. Petersburg. More

Former champion Mikhail Youzhny held a master class in the TRK “Galereya” shopping mall. All the mall guests were welcome to take part in the tournament. The guests then challenged themselves as they tried to return Youznhy’s serve. More

Youzhny also visited a shirt museum at Sibur Arena, which hosts a collection of all past champions’ signed shirts.

Troicki and Dusan Lajovic took a scenic canal boat tour to take in the city sights.

Youzhny, Joao Sousa, Andrey Rublev and Daniil Medvedev met fans at autograph sessions.

Andrey Kuznetsov attended a meet-and-greet for Emirates.

Moselle Open – Metz, France

Gilles Muller and Vincent Millot played mini tennis with young fans at Galeries Lafayette.

David Goffin, Tommy Robredo and NextGen’s Quentin Halys participated in meet-and-greets with local fans.

Dominic Thiem moved closer to qualifying for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals on Wednesday with an opening win at the Moselle Open in Metz. The 23-year-old Austrian prevailed against German qualifier Peter Gojowczyk 7-5, 7-6(2) to avenge a previous straight-sets loss to Gojowczyk in Doha in 2014.

Thiem had to retire from his most recent match, a fourth-round contest against Juan Martin del Potro at the US Open, because of a right-leg injury. But the World No. 10 moved freely and showed no signs of any lingering pain during his Moselle Open debut. The right-hander delivered 12 aces and didn’t face a break point in the 88-minute win.

Thiem is trying to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals for the first time. He’s currently in seventh place in the Emirates ATP Race To London. Three men – Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka – have already qualified for the year-end championships, to be held 13-20 November at The O2 in London, leaving five spots still open. In the quarter-finals, Thiem will face sixth seed Gilles Muller, who won 82 per cent of his service points to beat Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-4, 6-2 in 56 minutes.

Eighth seed Nicolas Mahut dismissed #NextGen player Quentin Halys 6-3, 6-4. Mahut is playing in Metz for the 11^th straight year and 13^th time in the past 14 years. He’ll try to improve on semi-final showings in 2007 and 2013. In the second round, the 34-year-old Mahut will meet Ukrainian Illya Marchenko, who saved two match points at 4-5, 15/40 in the deciding set to beat Andreas Seppi 6-7(1), 6-3, 7-6(4) in two hours and 28 minutes.

Julien Benneteau reached his second quarter-final of the season by beating German Dustin Brown 6-3, 6-4. He also reached the quarter-finals at the Abierto Mexicano Mifel last month in Los Cabos. Benneteau will meet a countryman in the quarter-finals, either Pierre-Hugues Herbert or third seed Lucas Pouille.

German Jan-Lennard Struff got the better of 2007 champion Tommy Robredo, who was making his ATP World Tour return following right elbow surgery on 27 April. Struff won 7-6(5), 7-5 in one hour and 33 minutes. He will next meet second seed and 2014 champion David Goffin.

Top seed Stan Wawrinka eased into the quarter-finals of the St. Petersburg Open on Wednesday, downing Lukas Rosol 6-3, 6-1 in the second round. The Swiss, who is coming off a title run at the US Open (d. Djokovic), only lost one first-serve point and did not drop serve. He hit eight aces and secured the win in 58 minutes. Wawrinka last played in St. Petersburg in 2004. That year, he fell to Jean-Rene Lisnard in the final.

Wawrinka improved to 6-0 in the FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry against the Czech. He will face Viktor Troicki or Dusan Lajovic in the next round. Troicki routed Gastao Elias 6-1, 6-2 in under one hour in their first-round clash on Wednesday. The seventh seed notched his first match win on his fourth appearance at the St. Petersburg Open. Troicki hit six aces and lost just three of his first service points.

Elsewhere, Joao Sousa, the eighth seed, scraped past qualifier Radu Albot 3-6, 6-4, 7-5. Mikhail Youzhny improved to 32-12 lifetime at the ATP World Tour 250 tournament by overcoming Janko Tipsarevic, the 2011 runner-up, 6-3, 7-5 in one hour and 51 minutes. Youzhny beat Karol Beck for the 2004 title.

It was a day for sightseeing in St. Petersburg as Tomas Berdych and Milos Raonic took time away from the St. Petersburg Open to visit the iconic St. Isaac cathedral on Tuesday. The duo were joined by Raonic’s girlfriend Danielle Knudson to take a tour of one of the city’s most picturesque landmarks, as well as a climb up a private staircase to the Balustrade where 12 bronze angels overlook St. Petersburg.

“I think it’s pretty special,” said Raonic, who will open his title defence in the Russian city against 2004 champion Mikhail Youzhny in the second round. “You can see most of fantastic cultural icons, monuments here in St. Petersburg. From this point atop St. Isaac’s Church, you can see everything and you really get to see how big St. Petersburg is, which sometimes you can really forget if you are driving a car. To climb to the Top of St Isaac’s Cathedral today was simply phenomenal.”

“It was really interesting to get a tour and to go downstairs to see all the cathedral and to get so much information,” said Berdych. “It’s a beautiful part of the city, so it was really interesting.

“The city is full of history and old architecture part and many other things as well. I’m coming from Prague, which is also a very historical city, so it’s always nice to see different parts of the city, the cathedral, the palaces and the stuff like this.” 

Though both players stand 6’5” tall, Berdych and Raonic admitted fighting their fear of heights in order to enjoy the vantage point. “I’m not the biggest fan of the heights. I’m afraid of that,” the Czech said. “I always managed with myself to see, because the view is really beautiful and something different when you can see the city from above.” 

“I’m not very good with heights,” the Canadian said. “The CN Tower in Toronto has to be the tallest place I’ve been to. I try to stay away of heights. Luckily, this structure has been around for over 600 years. So I definitely feel safe here.”

Berdych, the third seed, will face Andrey Kuznetsov in his opening match in the second round.

The best stretch of Paolo Lorenzi’s career continued on Tuesday at the St. Petersburg Open. The 34-year-old Italian saved two match points to outlast German qualifier Mischa Zverev 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-0 in two hours and six minutes to move into the second round at the Sibur Arena.

Earlier this month at the US Open, Lorenzi reached the third round and took a set off World No. 2 Andy Murray. In July, the Rome native became the oldest first-time winner in ATP World Tour history by winning the Generali Open in Kitzbuhel at the age of 34 years, seven months (d. Basilashvili).

Read What Lorenzi Had To Say After His First ATP World Tour Title

Lorenzi, who’s playing a career high No. 35 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, will face French qualifier Alexandre Sidorenko in the second round. The 28-year-old Paris resident upset sixth seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain 7-5, 6-2. Sidorenko, No. 255 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, had not played a tour-level match this season.

Serbian Dusan Lajovic gained the edge in his FedEx ATP Head2Head series against Spaniard Fernando Verdasco with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory. The 26-year-old Belgrade native won 74 per cent of his service points and now leads their series 2-1. Lajovic will meet either countryman Viktor Troicki, the seventh seed, or Portugal’s Gastao Elias in the second round.

Russian qualifier Daniil Medvedev also advanced. The 20 year old beat 19-year-old compatriot Alexander Bublik 6-4, 6-0 in 60 minutes. Medvedev will next face fifth seed Alexander Zverev.