Fourth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus beat seventh-seeded Dudi Sela of Israel 6-2, 7-5 on Thursday to advance to the semi-finals in the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships.
Third-seeded Gilles Muller of Luxembourg and sixth-seeded Adrian Mannarino of France reached the quarter-finals.
Muller topped Victor Estrella Burgos of the Dominican Republic 7-6 (7), 6-4, and Mannarino edged Australia’s Sam Groth 7-6 (6), 6-3.
The 31-year-old Baghdatis kissed the court when the match ended after giving a long embrace at the net to longtime friend Sela. The Cypriot is seeking his fifth career ATP title.
The 28-year-old Mannarino lost the first three games of the opening set and fell behind 5-1 before rallying on Newport’s grass courts.
Play was then delayed for nearly three hours by rain after Mannarino won the first set.
Second-seeded Ivo Karlovic of Croatia, a finalist in Newport the last two years, had his quarter-final match against Switzerland’s Marco Chiudinelli postponed until yesterday.
German Open
AP, HAMBURG, Germany
Seventh-seeded Martin Klizan and eight-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez joined the quarter-final field at the German Open with straight-set wins on Thursday.
Klizan, the Rotterdam winner, beat Louis Wessels, Germany’s top junior who still does not have a ranking, 6-1, 6-1.
Garcia-Lopez defeated Grega Zemlja of Slovenia 6-2, 6-2.
Stephane Robert of France beat Inigo Cervantes of Spain 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 and Daniil Medvedev completed the last eight by overcoming Daniel Gimeno-Traver 7-5, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (2) for the second time this season, guaranteeing him a top-200 ranking for the first time on Monday.
Garcia-Lopez next plays Robert, and Klizan plays Medvedev.
Swedish Open
AP, BASTAD, Sweden
Top-seeded David Ferrer came back from a set and 2-0 down in beating French qualifier Calvin Hemery 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 in the second round of the Swedish Open on Thursday.
The two-time former champion had a first-round bye, and was having a first meeting with Hemery, who earned his first match win on the tour on Tuesday.
Ferrer next plays Dustin Brown of Germany, who knocked out sixth-seeded Aljaz Bedene of Britain 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-3. The Spaniard said he watched that game.
“Dustin is playing well,” he said. “It is not easy playing against Dustin.”
Second-seeded Joao Sousa, the 2014 runner-up, lost only 12 of his service points in a 6-3, 6-1 win over wild card Carl Soderlund of Sweden. He next faces Portuguese compatriot Gastao Elias, who beat Japan’s Taro Daniel 7-6 (1), 3-6, 6-2.
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