Defending champ Dzumhur advances to St Petersburg 2nd round

Posted September 18, 2018 7:00 am

The Associated Press

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) - Defending champion Damir Dzumhur advanced to the second round of the St. Petersburg Open by beating Austrian qualifier Lucas Miedler 7-5, 6-3 on Tuesday.

Dzumhur came from 3-0 down in the opening set, winning 10 of the following 12 games.

The sixth-seeded Bosnian will face either Argentine player Guido Pella or Belarusian qualifier Ilya Ivashka. Stan Wawrinka is a possible quarterfinal opponent.

Last year, Dzumhur became the first man to win both of the ATP tour's Russian events in a single season after victory in St. Petersburg and the Kremlin Cup in Moscow.

Also Tuesday, the eighth-seeded Russian Daniil Medvedev swept past Portugal's Joao Sousa 6-4, 6-1 to set up a second-round meeting with either Mikhail Kukushkin or Denis Istomin.

Lukas Lacko defeated Belgian lucky loser Ruben Bemelmans 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 after his original opponent, the Cypriot veteran Marcos Baghdatis, withdrew. Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany earned a second-round meeting with top-seeded Dominic Thiem by beating Andrei Rublev 6-4, 7-6 (6).

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Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany returns the ball to Andrey Rublev of Russia during the St. Petersburg Open ATP tennis tournament match in St.Petersburg, Russia, Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky) The Associated Press

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