Top-ranked Roger Federer trounced Swiss compatriot Ivo Heuberger, 6-1, 6-3 Thursday and cruised into to the Thailand Open quarterfinals.
Second seeded Andy Roddick also advanced after rallying to move past fellow American Jeff Morrison 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-4.
PHOTO: EPA
"He hung in there, and after 5-1, it was the toughest game in the match," said Federer, who won three of the four Grand Slam titles in this year. "I was happy with my serves and returns today."
Heuberger entered the match with a sore tooth, a condition Federer exploited.
"I knew he was not 100 percent and I knew I could take advantage of that," Federer said. "He must be 100 percent to beat me."
After losing the second set, Roddick got a break in the deciding set and went on to lead 5-4. But it wasn't until the seventh match point that he was able to end the tight match with a forehand winner.
"I missed easy shots and missed easy points," Roddick acknowledged to reporters afterward.
He next faces Thomas Johansson of Sweden, who beat Chile's Adrian Garcia 6-3, 6-3.
"He's a former top 10 player and he's won a grand slam," Roddick said of the Swede. "It will be tough, but I'm hitting the balls well now."
Marat Safin booked his quarterfinals berth with a hard fought 6-3, 6-4 win over the Czech Republic's Jiri Vanek.
Defending champion Taylor Dent was not so lucky, losing 6-0, 6-4 to Dutchman Dennis Van Scheppingen in just 42 minutes.
The third seeded Safin needed eight match points to stop a late challenge from Vanek at the Impact Arena.
"It wasn't my day to close out the match," Safin said. "He was trying hard and didn't lose his opportunities. It was very close."
The win puts Safin a step closer to claiming back-to-back titles, after the Russian won the China Open earlier this month.
Dent's serve and volley game deserted him in the first set, which ended in just 20 minutes. He finally managed to hold his serve in the second set, but Scheppingen wrapped up the match with a sharp return to the American's feet.
Fourth-seeded Paradorn Srichaphan, the hometown favorite, was the last player to reach the quarterfinal with a 6-0, 7-6 (4) victory over American Alex Bogomolov Jr.
Paradorn won the first seven games before his world-ranked No. 102 opponent fought back to force the tie-break. The Thai kept his cool, however, consistently getting the crucial points to seal his crowd-pleasing victory.
In other second round matches, eighth-seeded Robin Soderling of Sweden eased past Australia's Paul Baccanello 6-1, 6-3, while Brazilian Flavio Saretta ousted Rogier Wassen of the Netherlands 3-6, 6-1, 6-3.
Shanghai Open
Last year's runner-up Jiri Novak overcame Dutch qualifier Melle Van Gemerden 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-1 in the second round.
"I was playing solid tennis today," the Czech said. "I took my advantages and I thought I was much better on the court in the third set."
Second-seeded Novak's seventh quarterfinal of the season will be against No. 8 Jan-Michael Gambill of the US, who ousted Chinese wild card Zhu Benqiang 6-0, 7-6 (5).
Third-seeded Guillermo Canas of Argentina beat Kristian Pless of Denmark 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 and remained on course to win his third title in four tournaments.
"I'm very happy to reach the quarterfinals. I had a tough match today," said Canas, winner of 15 of his last 16 matches.
He'll face seventh-seeded Ricardo Mello of Brazil on Friday.
Mello, who won his first career title in Florida this month, rallied to beat Serbia-Montenegro's Janko Tipsarevic, 1-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4.
Friday's other quarterfinals feature Davide Sanguinetti of Italy against Lars Burgsmuller of Germany, while Kenneth Carlsen of Denmark plays Gilles Muller of Luxembourg for the first time, both matches in the top half of the draw.
Sanguinetti downed sixth-seeded Finn Jarkko Nieminen 6-4, 7-5, in a match which combined 30 aces, and Burgsmuller defeated Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-3, 6-2.
Gaz de France
Top-seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia brushed aside Michaela Pastikova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-2 in the second round of the Gaz de France Stars.
Dementieva, world-ranked No. 6, had some trouble in the first set against a player ranked 145 places below her, but once she found her groove there was no stopping the Russian's cruise into the quarterfinals.
It was her first match since losing the US Open final nearly three weeks ago. She will play another Czech, Denisa Chladkova, in Friday's quarters.
The only seed to fall was No. 4 Karolina Sprem of Croatia, who fed Maria Elena Camerin of Italy too many unforced errors and lost 6-4, 6-4.
No. 5 Francesca Schiavone of Italy and No. 7 Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria lost only one game each.
Schiavone swept past Nuria Llagostera Vives of Spain 6-1, 6-0 in barely more than half an hour and will play No. 3 Elena Bovina of Russia, while Maleeva dispatched local player Els Callens 6-0, 6-1. Maleeva bought herself a match with another local, former No. 1 Kim Clijsters. Clijsters, seeded second, has made her return to the WTA Tour this week following a five-month injury layoff. She holds a 5-0 head-to-head record against Maleeva. Camerin will play Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain in the other quarter.
Campionati
Defending champion Nicolas Massu of Chile advanced to the Campionati Internazionali di Sicilia quarterfinals when Potito Starace of Italy retired ill.
Starace was trailing 4-1 when he quit with a stomach illness.
Top-seeded Massu, the Olympic singles and doubles gold medalist, moved on to meet another Italian, fifth-seeded Filippo Volandri, who dispatched Spanish qualifier Galo Blanco 6-2, 6-1 for the third straight time this year.
It is Volandri's first quarterfinals appearance in Palermo in four attempts.
In another second-round match, eighth-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic came from behind to defeat Jose Acasuso of Argentina 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 for his second career quarterfinals.
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