Safin reaches St Petersburg semi-finals

ST PETERSBURG (Reuters) - Marat Safin, playing in his penultimate tournament before retiring, beat Denis Istomin 6-0 7-6 to reach the St Petersburg Open semi-finals Friday.

Safin raced through the first set in less than 25 minutes and took a 2-0 lead in the second before the 101st-ranked Uzbek put up more of a fight.

The 29-year-old Russian, who will end his tennis career at next month's Paris Masters, served for the match at 5-4, but Istomin broke back and forced a tie-breaker two games later.

The former world number one finally sealed victory with his 12th ace and will take on Ukrainian qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky in Saturday's semi-finals.

World number 93 Stakhovsky beat Germany's Bjoern Phau 6-2 7-5 in the earlier match at the St Petersburg's Sports Complex.

"I guess, it was just too easy in the first set," Safin, bidding for his third title in St Petersburg after winning the annual indoor tournament in 2000 and 2001, told reporters.

"As a result, I lost concentration in the second set and when I lost my serve at 5-4, I started having some doubts whether I would be able to pull it through," he added.

"But I got lucky in the tiebreak as I was gifted a few points by my opponent."

(Reporting by Boris Khodorovsky; writing by Gennady Fyodorov; editing by Justin Palmer)