Rondon hat trick gives Zenit 3-0 win over Ural in Russia

MOSCOW (AP) - Venezuelan striker Jose Salomon Rondon scored a hat trick to give Zenit St. Petersburg a 3-0 win over Ural Yekaterinburg as the Russian Premier League resumed Saturday after its winter break.

Rondon put Zenit ahead with a 45th-minute header off a cross from right-back Igor Smolnikov and made sure of the win with goals on 70 and 78 minutes.

Rondon is the Russian league's top scorer with 10 goals from 16 games this season following his second hat trick of the campaign. Next up for Zenit is a Europa League last-16 match against Torino on Thursday.

The win keeps Zenit seven points clear at the top of the standings after its closest rival and defending champion CSKA Moscow beat Terek Grozny 2-1 earlier.

In CSKA's first league match since selling star striker Seydou Doumbia to Roma, Nigerian winger Ahmed Musa scored both of the club's goals, seizing on defensive mistakes by Terek, which pulled one back through Igor Lebedenko.

Before Saturday, there had been no Russian Premier League games since Dec. 8 due to the winter break.

On Sunday, fourth-place FC Krasnodar meets Spartak, which sits in sixth, before third-place Dynamo Moscow hosts FC Ufa and fifth-place Lokomotiv Moscow travels to FC Rostov.

Several relegation candidates are in action on Monday as Amkar Perm hosts Torpedo Moscow, Rubin Kazan plays Arsenal Tula and Kuban Krasnodar meets Mordovia Saransk.