Dominic Thiem was the first of the St.Petersburg field to book his ticket in the quarter finals after defeating fellow Austrian and newlywed Andreas Haider-Maurer 6-2, 7-6. Haider-Maurer, who is having his best season to date after reaching a career high ranking of 47 in April of this year was eager to cause an upset and overcome the only Austrian above him in the rankings and thereby access an ATP World Tour quarter final for the fifth time this year (the others coming at Umag, Casablanca, Rio de Janeiro and Chennai). But Thiem was at his very best, taking six of nine break point chances, and sealed his place in the quarter finals, where he will face the winner of Becker v Istomin.
Simone Bolelli beat Russian tennis’ big hope, Andrey Rublev, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 in yet another showing that proves that the 17 year old is more than ready to take the tennis world by storm. The Italian’s reward is a round of 16 clash with number 1 seed Tomas Berdych, who could seal his passage to the ATP World Tour Finals with a good run in Russia.
In other encounters, Istomin beat Kukushkin in the battle of the “stan” nations, Benjamin Becker rounded off a dire day for Kazakhstan by knocking out Golubev and Gabashvili (d.Shyla), Granollers (d. Kokkinakis) and Pouille (d.Berankis) also claimed wins in the opening round.
