Second seed Fernando Verdasco put an end to a frustrating series of losses by battling to a 6-1, 7-6 (7/5) second round win over Portugal’s Frederico Gil at the ATP-WTA Estoril Open on Thursday.
Verdasco had lost his opening match at four of his last five ATP tournaments, prompting the Spaniard to drop from ninth to 15th in the rankings.
However the 27-year-old turned the page by booking a quarter-final against South African seventh seed Kevin Anderson, who defeated Romanian Victor Hanescu 6-4, 6-2. Verdasco had to fight for his win over Gil, who was swept away in the first set but laid on a fighting rally in the second trailing 2-5.
Photo: REUTERS
He broke Verdasco twice to get back into the match, finally taking it into a tiebreaker which he narrowly lost.
French fourth seed Gilles Simon eliminated Argentine Carlos Berlocq 6-2, 6-1 to set up a meeting with in-form Canadian Milos Raonic, a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Portugal’s Joao Sousa.
In women’s play, all top three seeds were beaten in the quarter-finals.
German Kristina Barrois upset top seed Alisa Kleybanova of Russia 6-4, 6-2 and will next face Swede Johanna Larsson, who put out Russian Alla Kudryavtseva 6-2, 7-5. Romanian Monica Niculescu stopped second seed Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 while Spain’s Anabel Medina Garrigues upset third seed Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5.
BMW OPEN
AP, MUNICH, Germany
Marin Cilic of Croatia, last year’s runner-up, advanced to the quarter-finals of the BMW Open on Thursday by beating Horacio Zeballos of Argentina 6-3, 7-6 (7).
Cilic fired eight aces and lost only seven points behind his first serve while breaking Zeballos’ serve three times. The third-seeded Cilic is the highest seeded player left in the last eight.
Seventh-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia rallied to beat German qualifier Julian Reister 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-1.
Another former Munich champion, Philipp Kohlschreiber, won an all-German match against “lucky loser” Denis Gremelmayr 6-3, 6-3.
In his second quarter-final of the year, Kohlschreiber will face Radek Stepanek, who outlasted German wild card Dustin Brown 7-6 (6), 6-7 (5), 6-3 despite squandering a 5-2 lead in the second set.
Fifth-seeded Florian Mayer of Germany edged Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia 6-4, 7-6 (1) to set up a quarter-final showdown with Bulgarian teenager Grigor Dimitrov, who advanced on Wednesday.
SERBIA OPEN
AP, BELGRADE
Second-seeded Viktor Troicki of Serbia and third-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain were ousted from the Serbia Open in the second round on Thursday.
Troicki was broken eight times while losing to Marcel Granollers of Spain 6-2, 6-3, while Garcia-Lopez was beaten by Somdev Devvarman of India 7-6 (6), 2-6, 7-6 (8).
Granollers unraveled Troicki with drop shots that sent the Serb flying over the court to reach them. Troicki complained of back pain in the first set.
Granollers will face Italy’s Filippo Volandri, who defeated Illya Marchenko from Ukraine 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.
Garcia-Lopez struggled with his serve against Devvarman. The Spaniard double-faulted six times and was broken six times. Devvarman sealed the victory after three hours, 14 minutes when Garcia-Lopez netted a smash.
Devvarman will face Janko Tipsarevic, who cruised to victory in his hometown event against Mischa Zverev from Germany 6-2, 6-0.
BARCELONA OPEN
AP, BARCELONA, Spain
Roberta Vinci of Italy was one win away from reaching her third successive Barcelona Open final after dispatching Virginie Razzano of France 6-4, 6-1 on Thursday.
Vinci won Barcelona on debut in 2009 and was runner-up last year.
Yet to drop a set this year, the sixth-seeded Vinci will next face either Polona Hercog of Slovenia or Laura Pous-Tio of Spain. Hercog led their quarter-final 6-5 when it was suspended because of rain.
The fifth-seeded Sara Errani, the highest seed left in the event, broke Alberta Brianti six times in winning their all-Italian quarter-final 6-2, 6-3.
Czech Lucie Hradecka beat Estrella Cabeza Candela 6-4, 6-4.
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