Injured Youzhny and Andreev out of St Petersburg

St Petersburg: Top seed Mikhail Youzhny retired with a back injury midway through his second-round match against Denis Istomin at the St Petersburg Open on Thursday.

Youzhny, fresh from winning his first Kremlin Cup title on Sunday, took a medical timeout after losing the first set but was forced to quit three games later, trailing 6-2, 2-1."I just felt a sharp pain in my back midway through the first set," the Russian world number 25 told a news conference. "I had to battle through the pain for the rest of the first set. The medical break didn`t help either and soon I knew that I couldn`t go any longer and had to stop." "I just hope it`s not too serious," added Youzhny, who has been suffering from back pains for much of the season. Fifth-seeded compatriot Igor Andreev followed Youzhny out of the indoor tournament when he retired with a knee injury in the second set of his second-round encounter against Marat Safin, trailing 6-3, 0-1. "It`s an old injury, I`ve had it on and off for the last few months," 38th-ranked Andreev told a news conference. "I started feeling some pain in my left knee even before the match but I thought I would still be able to play. In the end, I just couldn`t do it any more." Safin said he was unaware his opponent was injured. "I was just concentrating on my game and didn`t know he was feeling pain in his knee," said the former world number one, playing in his penultimate tournament before retiring."In any case, I`m just happy I got through to the next round," added the Russian, who will now take on 101st-ranked Istomin of Uzbekistan in the last eight. Bureau Report