Moscow, Russia (My Sportsbook) - Russian favorites Nikolay Davydenko and Marat Safin were among Thursday's second-round winners at the $1.049 million ATP Kremlin Cup. The two stars will meet in a quarterfinal here on Friday.

The top-seeded and two-time defending champion Davydenko routed Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-1, 6-1, while a seventh-seeded Safin held off Frenchman Julien Benneteau 6-4, 0-6, 6-2 on the indoor carpet at Olympic Stadium. Davydenko has won this event three of the last four years and beat France's Paul-Henri Mathieu in last year's finale.

Davydenko, who is a stellar 17-2 at this event, is 4-2 lifetime against the two-time major champion and former world No. 1 Safin, including a second-round victory at the French Open this year and a win in the title bout here in Moscow two years ago.

Meanwhile, a fourth-seeded Mathieu, fresh off his runner-up finish in Metz, France last week, advanced with a 6-7 (3-7), 7-5, 7-6 (7-0) victory over Israeli Dudi Sela, who reached a final in Beijing last month. The 2007 Moscow runner-up Mathieu captured this event in 2002.

In other second-round play, Viktor Troicki upended eighth-seeded fellow Serb Janko Tipsarevic 6-3, 6-4, while German Mischa Zverev outlasted Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 and Russian Igor Kunitsyn clipped American Robby Ginepri 6-4, 6-3.

Friday's other quarters will pit Mathieu against fellow Frenchman Fabrice Santoro, Kunitsyn versus Frenchman Jeremy Chardy and Zverev against Troicki.

The 2008 Moscow champ will collect $171,000.