Officials were hoping for Australian Open winner
Marat Safin to head the field this week at the St. Petersburg Open in Russia, but with the former No. 1 still sidelined by a knee injury, the task now falls to top seed
Nikolay Davydenko.
Davydenko hopes St. Pete will provide a late-season push for him to qualify for one of the remaining spots for the year-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai.
Joining Davydenko among the seeds are Swede
Thomas Johansson, Max "The Beast" Mirnyi, Russian
Mikhail Youzhny, Germany's
Nicolas Kiefer, Finn
Jarkko Nieminen, Brit "Grinning"
Greg Rusedski and Spaniard Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco.
Top seeds Davydenko (vs.
Lukas Dlouhy) and Johansson (vs.
Philipp Kohlschreiber) should have relatively easy openers, but other testers remain in (8) Verdasco vs. (WC)
Mark Philippoussis, and (7) Rusedski vs. Russia-fornian
Dmitry Tursunov.
In last year's final Youzhny defeated Karol Beck 6-2, 6-2.
Returning champs in the field are Youzhny (2004) and T.Johansson (1997).
On court Monday are Vik vs. (6) Nieminen, (WC) Davletshin vs. Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer, Carlsen vs. (3) Max "The Beast" Mirnyi, (WC) Kunitsyn vs. Saulnier, Serra vs. (Q) Bjorkman, and (Q) Vanek vs. Pavel.
