Moscow - The Kremlin Cup suffered a double blow on Wednesday when top seed Nikolay Davydenko was beaten in his opening match while champion Mikhail Youzhny was forced to pull out with a virus infection.
"I had made a decision to withdraw after losing my doubles match," Youzhny, seeded second, told reporters.
"I don`t feel well at all and I don`t think I would have been able to play the singles in such condition.
"I will now have to take a break from training for a few days and see how I feel," added the world number nine, still with a chance to qualify for the World Tour Finals in London next month.
"I`m scheduled to play next week in St Petersburg but right now I`m not sure if I`ll be able to be there. I`ll have to make a decision by the end of the week."
Davydenko, who like his Russian compatriot Youzhny had a bye in the first round, lost his opening match for the second week in a row, going down to Uruguay`s Pablo Cuevas 7-6 7-6.
Davydenko has recently struggled to find the kind of form that helped him to win the season-ending World Tour Finals in London last year.
Wednesday`s double setback has added to the disappointments of the home crowd and local organisers of the annual ATP and WTA tournament that had been decimated by the withdrawals of high-profile players, particularly on the women`s side.
Russians Vera Zvonareva, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Maria Sharapova and 2009 champion Francesca Schiavone all pulled out. Serbia`s eighth seed Janko Tipsarevic, who lost to Youzhny in last year`s final, was bundled out in the first round on Wednesday by Horacio Zeballos 4-6 6-4 6-3.
On the women`s side, second seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus beat Germany`s Andrea Petkovic 6-4 2-6 6-1 and eighth-seeded Spaniard Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez saw off Ukraine`s Alona Bondarenko 6-4 1-6 6-1 to reach the last eight. (A008/F005/S026)
Source: http://www.antaranews.com