Bogomolov Jr. advances at St. Petersburg Open

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) -Alex Bogomolov Jr. of the United States and Marin Cilic of Croatia both won three-set matches to advance to the quarterfinals of the St. Petersburg Open on Thursday, while eighth-seeded local favorite Dmitry Tursunov was eliminated in straight sets in the second round. The seventh-seeded Bogomolov Jr. beat Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany 6-4, 3-6, 7-5, while fourth-seeded Cilic rallied to oust Somdev Devvarman of India 5-7, 6-1, 6-3. Tursunov lost to Potito Starace of Italy 6-2, 6-4. In his second consecutive quarterfinal appearance in two weeks, Bogomolov Jr. will play Serbian qualifier Dusan Lajovic, who recovered to beat Israeli wildcard Dudi Sela 2-6, 6-2, 6-1. Later, second-seeded Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia, who won his second career title in Moscow last Sunday, advanced to the quarterfinals of the event for the third time after Michael Berrer of Germany retired with an illness when trailing 6-3, 2-0. "I knew it was going to be a tricky match because Berrer is a very good indoor player," Tipsarevic said. "It's never nice to win this way but I feel that even though it was 6-3, I did a lot of running in the first set." Tipsarevic will next play Starace. The 53rd-ranked Starace broke Tursunov two times in the first set and in the fifth game of the second. Tursunov saved three match points at 5-4 before earning his only break point of the match, but the Italian served two winners and closed the match with a backhand volley. "He (Starace) served well today while I rarely hit (the ball) with the center of my racket," Tursunov said. "I started to play more or less only at the end of the match when I've realized that it was time to go out of the court. The way I've played today, I could have lost not only to him." The 84th-ranked Devvarman broke in the 11th game of the first set, but the 24th-ranked Cilic, who is looking for his first title this season, won five consecutive games in the second set and broke twice in the decider to advance. Cilic will next face Andreas Seppi of Italy who rallied to beat Igor Andreev of Russia 3-6, 6-2, 6-4. Bogomolov Jr. is making his debut at a second consecutive event in Russia after reaching the quarterfinals at the Kremlin Cup last week. He said earlier this week that he plans to represent Russia in the Davis Cup. Kohlschreiber won three games in a row and saved a match point as he fought back from 5-2 down to level at 5-all. But serving at 6-5 down and 30-all, the unseeded German returned wide and then double faulted on match point. "It was a good match," Bogomolov Jr. said. "He (Kohlschreiber) was playing much better by the end of the match. He received perfectly when I was serving for the match at 5-3 up and broke me. I was lucky when he double faulted on second match point. I'm happy that I will play in the next round."