MOSCOW — Former world No. 3 Nikolay Davydenko announced his retirement Thursday at the age of 33.

The Russian, who won the ATP World Tour Finals title in 2009 and helped his country win the Davis Cup in 2006, said injuries had forced him to end his 15-year career.

“I had a lot of injuries over the last few years,” Davydenko told a news conference in Moscow. “They are still causing me discomfort. The time has come: I am officially announcing my retirement as a professional sportsman.”

Davydenko, never one of the sport’s great showmen, consistently mixed it with the big guns and famously beat Roger Federer at the 13th time of asking in the semifinals of the Tour Finals in London five years ago before downing Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro in the final.

His best year on tour, however, was in 2006 when he won five titles and reached the US Open semifinal, rising to third in the world rankings.

Raonic eliminated 

at Kremlin Cup

Top-seeded Milos Raonic of Canada was eliminated in his first match at the Kremlin Cup Thursday, losing 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to Lithuanian qualifier Ricardas Berankis.

Earlier Thursday, last year’s runner-up Mikhail Kukushkin knocked out fourth-seeded Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-4, 6-2. Spain’s Tommy Robredo, seeded sixth, progressed to the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Serbia’s Filip Krajinovic. Robredo meets US Open champion Marin Cilic, who is seeded second.

Cilic reached the quarterfinals after grinding out a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory over Russian wild-card entrant Evgeny Donskoy Wednesday. Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut won his second-round match against big-serving Australian Sam Groth 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4).

Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny reached the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-4 win over compatriot Viktor Baluda. Italy’s Andreas Seppi beat Croatia’s Ivan Dodig 7-5, 7-6 (3) in the second round.

There was an upset in the women’s draw as second-seeded Ekaterina Makarova exited her hometown tournament in the second round, losing 6-4, 6-4 to Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu.

Third-seeded Flavia Pennetta also fell, losing 7-6 (4), 6-4 to fellow Italian Camila Giorgi in their second-round match.

Also in the quarterfinals is fourth-seeded Lucie Safarova, who ousted Serbia’s Alja Tomljanovic 7-6 (4), 6-2, while Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia rallied to beat Ukraine’s Kateryna Kozlova 3-6, 6-3, 6-3. 

Ferrer beats Kamke

David Ferrer advanced to his 15th quarterfinal of the season after defeating Tobias Kamke of Germany 7-5, 6-1 at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna Thursday.

Ferrer, who needs to reach Sunday’s final to improve his chances of qualifying for the ATP Finals, plays No. 6 Ivo Karlovic of Croatia in the quarterfinals.

Earlier, Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil rallied to beat No. 3 Feliciano Lopez 6-7 (9), 6-1, 6-4.

Bellucci next plays Viktor Troicki of Serbia, who reached his third quarterfinal since returning from a doping ban in July by beating No. 5 Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-2.

Also, Jan-Lennard Struff won the last seven points in the third-set tiebreaker to beat Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 7-6 (6), 2-6, 7-6 (3).  Benjamin Becker of Germany defeated last year’s finalist, Robin Haase of the Netherlands, 6-3, 6-3. He lined up a quarterfinal against fellow German Philipp Kohlschreiber.

Dimitrov in quarters

In Stockholm, defending champion Grigor Dimitrov advanced to the quarterfinals of the Stockholm Open by defeating Russia’s Teymuraz Gabashvili 7-5, 7-6 (4) Wednesday.

Spain’s Fernando Verdasco beat Jarko Nieminen of Finland 6-3, 6-4 to set up a quarterfinal match against Bernard Tomic. The Australian beat third-seeded Kevin Anderson of South Africa 7-6 (4), 6-4.

In first-round matches, Jack Sock of the United States defeated Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan in three sets and France’s Pierre-Hugues Herbert beat Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain.

German qualifier Dustin Brown beat Christian Lindell of Sweden 6-4, 7-6 (3) in the late match to reach the second round. — Agencies