Youzhny Shocks Raonic In St. Petersburg

Russian Mikhail Youzhny, the winningest player at the St. Petersburg Open, upended No. 2 seed Milos Raonic 2-6, 7-6(6), 6-4 in the pair’s second-round match on Thursday. Youzhny was two points from defeat, down 5/2 in the second-set tie-break, but fought back to secure his first win in three FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings against the big-serving Canadian. It was the 33rd win in St. Petersburg for the 2004 champion, who also snapped a 10-match losing streak against Top 10 players. He will face Alexander Zverev in the quarter-finals.

Despite the loss, Raonic remains in contention for a place in the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. He is No. 4 in the Emirates ATP Race To London behind Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka, who have already qualified.

Third seed Tomas Berdych edged past Andrey Kuznetsov 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(4). Berdych, who is attempting to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals for the seventh straight year, is aiming to make up ground on No. 8-placed Rafael Nadal in the Emirates ATP Race To London. Berdych (2,530 points) is 670 points behind Nadal (3,200).

Lorenzi overcame qualifier Alexandre Sidorenko 7-6(6), 6-4 earlier in the day, while seventh seed Viktor Troicki beat fellow Serbian Dusan Lajovic 6-4, 6-4 to set up a clash against top seed Wawrinka.

#NextGen star Zverev broke serve five times to see off local favourite Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 7-5 in 85 minutes. Zverev’s father represented the Soviet Union on the ATP World Tour. The 19-year-old German was reunited with his grandfather for the first time in 10 years this week in St. Petersburg.

Eighth seed Joao Sousa saved five of seven break points to defeat wild card Andrey Rublev 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-3 in two hours and 12 minutes.

Doubles Semi-Finals Set

Top seeds Dominic Inglot and Henri Kontinen downed Paolo Lorenzi and Adrian Mannarino 6-7(5), 6-1, 10/7 to set a semi-final clash against Russians Konstantin Kravchuk and Andrey Kuznetsov, who won 6-4, 7-6(6) against Karen Khachanov and Lukas Rosol.

Andre Begemann and Leander Paes were 6-3, 7-5 winners over Purav Raja and Divij Sharan. They will next face Mikhail Elgin and Alexander Kudryavtsev, who upset No. 2 seeds Marcin Matkowski and Nenad Zimonjic 7-6(4), 7-5.