Second seed Robredo beaten in St Petersburg

ST PETERSBURG, Russia, Oct 24 (Reuters) Australian doubles specialist Wayne Arthurs knocked out second seed Tommy Robredo 6-3 2-6 6-4 in the first round of the 1 million dollars St Petersburg Open today.

The defeat came as a blow to the Spanish world number eight's bid to qualify for next month's season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai.

Third seed Mario Ancic of Croatia went through with a 7-5 6-1 victory over unseeded American Paul Goldstein.

Holder Thomas Johansson of Sweden beat Canadian Frank Dancevic 6-0 6-7 6-3 to set up a second-round clash with seventh-seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny or unseeded German Rainer Schuettler.

Top seed Nikolay Davydenko takes on Frenchman Fabrice Santoro later today in a rematch of their Kremlin Cup semi-final won by the Russian earlier this month on the way to claiming his fourth title of the year.

Reuters AB DB2222