Marat Safin's comeback bid suffered another blow on Tuesday when the former world number one slumped to a first-round defeat at the St Petersburg Open.

Safin, who has not won a match on the ATP Tour since April, lost to Spaniard Fernando Vicente, ranked number 60 in the world, 6-7 6-4 6-3.

The eighth-seeded Russian, who has been dogged by fitness problems, blamed lack of confidence for his early exit in front of his home crowd.

"The biggest problem for me is that I don't have any confidence in my game at the moment," said the 23-year-old former US and Australian Open champion, adding that he had all but given up on improving this year.

"I can't do much this year anymore, so I just look forward to a new season and hope things will be different for me then."

Vicente was ecstatic about his victory.

"It was a rather difficult match for me, but I'm very glad to come through in the end," he said. "This is the last tournament of the year for me, so I just hope to finish it in the best way possible."

In the second round, the Spaniard will meet unseeded German Lars Burgsmuller who eliminated Israeli qualifier Andy Ram 2-6 7-6 6-1.

It was a bad day for the home players. Nikolay Davydenko was also sent packing, losing to sixth-seeded American Vincent Spadea 4-6 6-1 6-2.

There were no other upsets on Tuesday as second seed Sebastien Grosjean of France overcame Austrian Stefan Koubek 6-7 6-3 7-5, while third-seeded Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten prevailed over American Brian Vahaly 7-6 6-4.

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