No. 1 Murray advances in St. Petersburg; No. 4 Youzhny, No. 8 Safin eliminated

Defending champion and No. 1 seed Andy Murray (pictured) defeated Latvian Ernests Gulbis, 6-4, 6-2, in the second round at the St. Petersburg Open in Russia on Thursday to advance to his 10th quarterfinal of the season. Murray was solid on serve throughout the match, smashing five aces, while dropping only five first serve points and eight second serve points. The 21-year-old Scot, who reached the US Open finals in September, was able to break serve on four of nine opportunities, while Gulbis broke serve only once.

Murray earned his 50th win of the season this afternoon by defeating Gulbis, which makes him the fifth player this season to win at least 50 matches. Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Nikolay Davydenko are the other four players in the 50-match win club for the 2008 season. Currently ranked No. 4 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings, Murray is chasing his fifth title of the year after already winning singles titles in Doha, Marseille and at Masters Series events in Cincinnati and Madrid. In the quarterfinals Murray will take on Serbian Janko Tipsarevic, a 6-4, 7-6(3), winner over Frenchman Jeremy Chardy.

Two Russian seeds were eliminated on Thursday, as qualifier and world No. 150 Andrey Golubev defeated No. 8 Marat Safin and No. 4 seed Mikhail Youzhny was beaten by German qualifier Mischa Zverev in straight sets. Safin won the title in St. Petersburg in 2000 and 2001, while Youzhny won the title here in 2004.

Golubev, a Kazakhstan qualifier, beat Safin in one hour and 14 minutes, 6-4, 6-2, to earn his fifth career ATP level victory and his first ATP quarterfinal berth. Golubev won a remarkable 24 of 27 first serve points and was able to break serve four times, while Safin was successful breaking serve only once during the match. Golubev will next meet Zverev in the quarterfinals.

Zverev smashed five aces and made 79 percent of his first serves en route to a convincing, 7-5, 6-4, victory over No. 4 Youzhny. The German qualifier broke serve on four of five opportunities, while the former Top 10 player from Moscow broke only twice. Youzhny falls to 28-21 on the season, while Zverev improves to 18-21 on the season.