Men's third seed Mikhail Youzhny went down to fellow Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili 7-5 4-6 7-6 in the first round of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow.

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World number 22 Youzhny was expected to beat his lesser-known compatriot but paid the price for losing his cool in the tiebreak as he allowed the 66th-ranked Gabashvili to reel off the last seven points in the match.

Second-seeded Russian Igor Andreev, who won the event in 2005, also bowed out, losing to Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 3-6 7-5 6-4.

Russia lost another seed when fifth-seeded Dmitry Tursunov, who recently won his fifth ATP title in Metz, withdrew from his first-round match without hitting a ball with a shoulder injury.

Fourth seed and 2002 winner Paul-Henri Mathieu of France had little problem dispatching Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-3 6-2.

Other first-round clashes saw Igor Kunitsyn beat fellow Russian Mikhail Kukushkin 6-1 4-6 6-1 and Germany's Mischa Zverev also beat a compatriot, Denis Gremelmayr, 6-3 7-6(7).

Veteran Frenchman Fabrice Santoro - who retires from the singles tour at the end of the season - beat Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 6-2 6-4 in the first second-round match of the tournament.