A relaxed Roger Federer spent time polishing his clay-court game on the practice court as potential rivals fell away through injury or illness at the Estoril Open on Thursday. The world No. 1, whose French Open title defense starts in just over a fortnight, put in a training session at the Estadio Nacionale, where he is bidding for a second title after 2008.
Federer was to play veteran Frenchman Arnaud Clement in yesterday’s quarter-finals and holds a 6-3 advantage in that series with their last meeting in 2006.
While Federer was keeping fit, there was bad news for organizers as ailing French third seed Gael Monfils joined injured No. 2 Croatian Ivan Ljubicic in making a late pullout.
On court in the second round, Spanish fifth seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez put out one of three Portuguese players remaining as he beat Leonardo Tavares 6-2, 6-2. Portugal guaranteed itself a player in the final four for the first time as Rui Machado beat Michal Przysienzy 6-4, 6-4 and Frederico Gil defeated Santiago Giraldo by a similar scoreline.
■MUNICH ATP
AFP, MUNICH, Germany
Top-seed Marin Cilic recovered from losing a first set tie-break on Thursday at the Munich ATP tournament to book his place in the quarter-finals.
Heavy rain meant play could not get underway until the afternoon, but Croatia’s Cilic dug deep to see off Germany’s Simon Greul in just over two and a half hours for a 6-7 (6/8), 6-2, 7-5 win.
The world No. 11 will play sixth-seed Nicolas Almagro in the quarter-finals after the Spaniard also needed more than two hours to beat South Africa’s Kevin Anderson 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (7/5).
Fourth-seed Philipp Kohlschreiber, who won the tournament in 2007, will play 2006 Australian Open finalist and fifth-seed Marcos Baghdatis in their quarter-final.
Kohlschreiber had few problems as he raced through his second-match with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Spain’s Santiago Ventura in just over an hour.
Likewise, Baghdatis blasted seven aces past Switzerland’s Marco Chiudinelli for a comfortable 6-3, 6-4 win.
In the other two quarter-finals, third-seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic will play Germany’s Philipp Petzchner while second-seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny will take on Jan Hajek of the Czech Republic.
■SERBIAN OPEN
AP, BELGRADE
Defending champion Novak Djokovic advanced to the quarter-finals of his hometown tournament on Thursday by beating Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-4, 6-4 in the second round of the Serbia Open.
Djokovic broke three times in each set in a match where both players struggled with their serve.
Second-seeded John Isner of the US made it to his first quarter-final since February by easily defeating Josselin Ouanna of France, while Richard Gasquet of France ousted eighth-seeded Andreas Seppi of Italy 4-6, 6-2, 7-5.
Serbian 18-year-old wild card Filip Krajinovic rallied to beat Horacio Zeballos of Argentina 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (5) for his first ATP Tour quarter-final.
The Serbia Open is organized by the Djokovic family.
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