Fourth seed Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan and third seed Lleyton Hewitt of Australia both stormed back for three-set victories to reach the quarter-finals of the US National Indoor Tennis Championships on Thursday.
Taiwanese No. 1 Lu rallied for a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over US qualifier Denis Kudla, while Hewitt, a former world No. 1, recovered to defeat Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 1-6, 6-2, 6-0.
Lu, 30, set up a quarter-final clash with another American qualifier, Alex Kuznetsov.
Kuznetsov toppled eighth seed Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/1).
Lu will be hoping to improve on his career-best season start.
He is 8-2 this year and reached his first ATP Tour final last month in Auckland, New Zealand.
Hewitt converted five of his six break chances over the final two sets, wrapping up the victory in 1 hour, 31 minutes.
He has now won three of his five career matches against Baghdatis.
The 32-year-old Australian reached the quarter-finals in Memphis for the third time in four appearances and next faces 35-year-old Michael Russell of the US.
Hewitt is in search of his second title of the year.
He opened the 2014 season with a triumph in Brisbane, where he beat Swiss great Roger Federer in the final.
Croatian Ivo Karlovic pounded 19 aces past second-seeded Feliciano Lopez in beating the Spaniard in straight sets to reach the last eight.
Karlovic, ranked 80th in the world, needed 69 minutes to defeat Lopez 7-6 (7/2), 6-4.
While Lopez, runner-up to Japan’s Kei Nishikori in Memphis last year, was denied a return to the final, Karlovic takes on rising US talent Jack Sock, while defending champion Nishikori — the top seed at an ATP Tour tournament for the first time — faces Alex Bogomolov of the US.
ABN AMRO WORLD
AFP, ROTTERDAM, Netherlands
Top-seeded duo Juan Martin del Potro and Andy Murray progressed to the quarter-finals of the ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam on Thursday, keeping alive the prospect of a meeting in the final.
Del Potro, the No. 1 seed, moved safely through with a victory over unseeded Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-2, 7-6 (7/2) in 86 minutes, his win featuring 10 aces.
Meanwhile, second-seeded wild-card Murray had a tougher time before eventually overcoming promising Austrian qualifier Dominic Thiem in three sets, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
Murray found himself fending off a 20-year-old who is the youngest player ranked inside the top 125 and was a quarter-finalist last season in Kitzbuehel and Vienna.
“It was an unbelievably tough battle,” the Scot said. “There were a lot of long points. He was hitting some huge shots, going for the lines. He had some really big winners. His game is fun to watch, but it’s no fun to play against at all. I’m sure we will be seeing a lot more of him.”
Murray started the evening with a double-break, but the contest turned into a struggle lasting almost 2 hours, 30 minutes.
Thiem recovered from the loss of the opening set to break in the eighth game of the second and level the match, before Murray gained some control back in the third set.
The Wimbledon champion won a monster second game in which Thiem saved three break points and the contest finally ended seven games later on Murray’s first match point.
The Scot next faces Marin Cilic, a former top 10 player who he has defeated in 10 of 11 previous meetings.
Argentine Del Potro had it much easier on court, but admitted that he is still competing with some pain in his fragile left wrist, which has been under the care of his doctor in Minnesota since late last month.
“I know the wrist is getting better, I’m not worried about that, but I have to try and not think too much about it,” Del Potro said. “Sometimes it gets frustrating, but the wrist problem is not dangerous, so I can deal with it. The doctors are comfortable with how it’s going — I can deal with a little bit of pain. It is to be expected after not touching a racket for so long.”
Elsewhere, Czech third seed Tomas Berdych posted another near-perfect showing, firing 10 aces and saving all four break points he faced against France’s Nicholas Mahut on his way to a 6-4, 6-3 victory in just 72 minutes.
The Czech, who is playing the event for the eighth time, is looking to better his previous best showing, when he reached the semi-finals in 2012.
“I felt good on the court and I was hitting the ball very cleanly,” the world No. 7 said. “I credit this win to my serve, which really helped me out. For me, serving was the key to the match.”
Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz, a winner over German sixth seed Tommy Haas 6-4, 6-4, takes on Berdych next, while Del Potro lines up in the quarter-finals against Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis, who upset eighth seed Grigor Dimitrov in straight sets.
Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber knocked out tired-looking fourth seed Richard Gasquet 7-5, 7-5 as the Frenchman was barely able to go through the motions.
COPA CLARO
AP, BUENOS AIRES
Two-time defending champion and top seed David Ferrer of Spain defeated Colombia’s Santiago Giraldo 6-4, 7-6 (7/1) on Thursday to reach the quarter-finals of the Copa Claro.
Ferrer has won 20 times on the ATP Tour and is a strong favorite to make it three straight in the Argentine capital.
Fourth seed Nicolas Almagro also reached the quarter-finals, defeating fellow Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver 1-6, 7-5, 6-4.
Almagro has won all of his 12 ATP titles on clay — six in Latin America — and could face Ferrer in the semi-finals.
Eighth seed Jeremy Chardy of France joined Almagro and Ferrer in the last eight, defeating Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7/3).
Second seed Fabio Fognini of Italy reached the quarters on Wednesday, as did No. 3 Tommy Robredo of Spain.
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