All the big guns have now played at this year’s St Petersburg Open and, surprisingly, not all of them remain standing. A tournament that has been blessed by the presence of many of Russia’s top players witnessed a winless Monday beginning for the Russian contingent.

Dmitry Tursunov was broken six times in his swift defeat by Dominik Hrbaty. The Slovakian, who has six career ATP singles titles to his name, needed less than an hour to secure his passage into the second round. In fact, much to everyone’s surprise, the three Russian players involved on Monday – Tursunov, Moscow champion Igor Kunitsyn and Evgeny Korolev - failed to register a set between them. Kunitsyn and Korolev fell to Rainer Schuettler and Victor Hanescu respectively.

If Monday was a disappointment for Russian involvement, Tuesday was a day to forget for Croatia. Mario Ancic and Marin Cilic both exited the tournament in the first round after losing deciding sets. Jeremy Chardy of France and Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin (who came through qualifying) were the beneficiaries of tight battles.

Nikolay Davydenko, who will compete at the Masters Cup in Shanghai for a fourth successive year, got his campaign off to a good start with a straight sets win over big serving Aussie Chris Guccione. Davydenko never looked in trouble and was a constant threat from the baseline while not allowing a break point on his own serve throughout, winning 85% of first serves. Unfortunately a left wrist injury has resulted in Davydenko’s withdrawal from the remainder of the tournament.

Tuesday also saw wins for Mikhail Youzhny, Fernando Verdasco, Ernests Gulbis (for the loss of only two games versus Guillermo Garcia-Lopez) and Janko Tipsarevic.

Wednesday saw the defending champion and recent Madrid Masters Series winner Andy Murray in action. The Scot dispatched Serbia’s Viktor Troicki in straight sets and set up a mouth-watering clash with Gulbis in the second round. Murray needed just over an hour to complete his victory and broke three times in the process, while saving the only break point he faced.

Two-time St Petersburg champion and former world No.1 Marat Safin also recorded a first-round win over Ukraine’s Sergei Stakhovsky. Kazakhstan qualifier Andrey Golubev secured an impressive straight sets victory against Belgian Olivier Rochus.

Left-handed Spaniard Verdasco, who still has ambitions of being a part of the Masters Cup, helped his cause with a second-round win against Latvian wild card Karlis Lejnieks. Two of Monday’s winners were also in action against each other, with Schuettler getting the better of Hrbaty 6-3 6-3.

Today’s action is headlined by the eagerly-anticipated Murray-Gulbis clash and the locals will also get to see Russian favourites Safin and Youzhny on court. Stay tuned for more reports from the St Petersburg Open later in the week, including previews of the semi-finals and final.