St Petersburg, Russia, 17 September 2013 | tennis.com.au

Sam Groth has maintained his impressive form of 2013 by qualifying for the ATP event in St Petersburg, Russia.

The Australian beat Victor Baluda 6-4 6-3 on Monday to take his place in the main draw of the 250-level tournament, where he will face No.8 seed Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.

Earlier in qualifying, Groth accounted for German Frank Moser and Russia’s Mikhail Vaks, also in straight sets.

The result continues the world No.210’s rich vein of form; this is the third ATP event he has successfully qualified for since June, following Queen’s and Washington DC.

He has won 13 of his past 19 matches.

Groth and Istomin have never before met. The winner of their match will take on Kazakh Andrey Golubev in the second round.